Three American nationals are among five people who perished after the plane they were traveling in crash-landed in a private farm in Kamuingi , Londiani in Kipkelion East constituency.
Those already identified include Melissa Witt-a US national, Carl Richard-American male, Cynthia Charles Sednaoui-American female, and Kevin Mwanza Mutava- Kenyan. The identity of another male could not be immediately established. The Cessna 206 registration 5Y-BSE crashed into a cypress tree within the farm of Mr. Josphat Gikonyo killing the five on the spot. The incident happened around 10: 45 AM on Wednesday.
Mr. Gikonyo who was supervising tilling by a tractor on his farm said he spotted the light fixed-wing aircraft plummeting from the sky towards his farm with the pilot issuing them a warning to move away.“I was on the farm with two workers when we spotted the plane plummeting. It was spiraling out of control. The pilot had his head and hand out telling us to move away,” said Gikonyo. Josephat Kimutai narrated how he escaped from the scene where the plane crashed as he was tilling Gikonyo’s land. According to Kimutai, one of the passengers, a lady was hanging out of the aircraft in her attempt to jump off but was trapped by a seat belt.
“She might have survived were it not for the seatbelt which strapped her to the fuselage. Her entire body was outside before the plane crashed and landed on her,” said Kimutai. He said as the aircraft came tumbling down, he drove off his tractor to a safe distance and walked to the scene accompanied by Mr. Gikonyo to try and rescue the crash victims. Kimutai said that on reaching the scene, the pilot was writhing in pain and warned them against moving closer.”The pilot was stuck in the wreckage but he was still alive although badly injured. He told us to keep off citing that the plane could explode in flames. We, however, tried to remove them but they succumbed to injuries while still trapped in their seats,” he said. Another witness, Joseph Ng’ethe, said that the pilot had a hard time controlling the aircraft before it crashed.
The pilot had tried to land the plane at Kamini 1 Secondary School but aborted only to crash in the next farm.”The students were out watching the plane. The pilot’s hand could be seen waving at them to move out of the way. He was, however, unable to land within the school and crashed a few meters away,” said Ng’ethe. According to documents retrieved from the scene, the plane was being navigated by 28-year-old Kevin Mwanza Mutava from Nairobi.
The county police commander said that the bodies of the deceased had been moved to the Kericho County Hospital mortuary.
