Kenya Airways plane forced to turn back over alleged stowaway

A Kenya Airways plane that was headed to Nairobi from Johannesburg is said to have turned back in what was alleged to be a stowaway incident.

According to the Aviation Herald, KQ761 was midair when the pilot was notified of the presence of a maintenance engineer aboard the aircraft.

”…the crew was informed a maintenance engineer should have been left in Johannesburg,” the report said.

The Aviation Herald reports about incidents in civil aviation companies.

On Tuesday, the plane had left Oliver Tambo Airport at 12:10 South African time.

However, 30 minutes later, the Boeing 787-8 plane was forced to turned back.

@KenyaAirways reason for the turn around on KQ761 on FL31K? pic.twitter.com/8UYWaDVxRD

— Dr.DGK (@DiscoDave_KE) November 5, 2019

The maintenance engineer was allegedly discovered after the plane landed on the runway. “He’s here and conscious!” Aviation Herald quoted the crew.

The plane is said to have stayed at the airport for almost an hour before resuming the journey to Nairobi.

Kenya Airways however did not confirm the claims of the stowaway only stating that: “….we had an air-turn back due to operational reasons, however the same flight left Johannesburg at 1335Hrs.”

In July of this year, a dead stowaway was discovered to have been on a Kenya Airways plane that was headed to London from Nairobi.

The body of the unidentified male dropped from the plane into a garden in Clapham, South London.

It is believed that he died inside the landing compartment where he had hidden himself.

“UK police also discovered a bag containing food and some clothing at the rear left landing gear of the plane,” the Kenya Airports Authority later revealed.

A photo of the man was released in October but his identity is yet to be verified.