Back to Squawk list
  • 20

Massive fire closes Nairobi Airport

Submitted
The Kenya Airports Authority (KAA) said Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA) had been closed and passengers evacuated. Images posted on Twitter showed smoke and flames billowing from one of the main buildings. https://twitter.com/NewsBreaker/status/364973156294873088/photo/1 (www.bbc.co.uk) More...

Sort type: [Top] [Newest]


canuck44
canuck44 5
Update from Nairobi friend: Domestic traffic has resumed (Air Kenya in newer terminal) and International expected to resume tomorrow on limited basis. Passengers advised to arrive a full 3 hours before their departing flights....in my experience that is good advise at NBO in the best of times.
KevinBrown
Kevin Brown 4
UPDATE: Latest from KTN http://www.ustream.tv/KTNKENYALIVE

- No casualties reported
- JKIA remains closed to all but emergency flights
- fire is not contained and entire airport being evacuated
- fire broke out in the International terminal - no known cause at this time
- fire broke out at 5:00 AM local time
- next official briefing scheduled for 3:30AM EST
- ALL arriving flights being diverted to Mombasa http://flightaware.com/live/airport/HKMO
canuck44
canuck44 2
Thanx for posting...there are a lot of old buildings at NBO so I don't wonder any fire got out of control, accidental or deliberate. Wilson Airport cannot handle anything much larger than a regional jet so it would look like Mombasa (10K feet) and Kili (11K) will be the alternates.
Moviela
Ric Wernicke 3
Nairobi Airport is Alight, all flights cancelled, terminal destroyed. $9 damage.
THRUSTT
THRUSTT 2
They got off pretty cheap...

vanstaalduinenj
I wonder how many L1011's and 727's were lost?
jshhmr
josh homer 1
Not sure if joke......laughed anyway. Poor 707's and DC-8's :-(
canuck44
canuck44 1
Not many...the vintage parked aircraft are far away across the apron, but your point is well taken. If this were Nairobi's Wilson Airport there would be lots of old Russian helos and fixed wing skeletons about. NBO is where I saw my first re-engined DC-3 with tiny (relative) turboprops installed. They only about a dozen jetways so the apron has a rather impressive line up of international carriers. Apart from Kenya Airways and a discount airline almost all other traffic is international and much of it long range. Most of the little guys from years back have gone.
KevinBrown
Kevin Brown 1
UPDATE:

Cause of this massive fire is unknown at this time but today marks the 15th anniversary of the US Embassy bombing in Nairobi that took the lives of 233 including 12 Americans and it comes at a time when the world is on a heightened terrorism alert.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1998_United_States_embassy_bombings
KevinBrown
Kevin Brown 1
KTN is now LIVE web-streaming http://www.ntv.co.ke/live/ (better quality then the USTREAM feed)
KevinBrown
Kevin Brown 1
CORRECTION: this is the NTV live stream
KevinBrown
Kevin Brown 1
Live coverage from local news station KTN in Nairobi

http://www.ustream.tv/KTNKENYALIVE
rhettlaf
Rhett LaFleur 1
Spent 22 hours at JKIA in August of 2009 during a Kenya Airways strike with 15000 of my closest friends and a heightened military presence. Gonna miss that place.......
SootBox
SootBox 0
Anyone wanna bet against terrorism?
Moviela
Ric Wernicke 2
I don't think this fire was deliberate. My man in Nairobi points the finger at Duty Free employees who in the wee hours use electric cookers to prepare personal food. Electricity is expensive in Kenya, so they cook at work with a self installed array of extension cords and power strips. The building is quite ancient and being a British style electrical system not very tolerant to unauthorized modifications. A small fire started from an overload, they thought was extinguished. They went back to cooking, and whoosh the whole thing went up.
BenKFIT
Ben Lillie 1
Wow, those employees are gonna get burned. No pun intended. lol.
rayksaintange
(Duplicate Squawk Submitted)

Major fire at Nairobi’s Jomo Kenyatta International Airport

Reports are coming in through the Kenya Red Cross, the country’s foremost emergency response organization, that a major fire is raging at Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA).

http://www.eturbonews.com/36836/major-fire-nairobi-s-jomo-kenyatta-international-airport

Login

Don't have an account? Register now (free) for customized features, flight alerts, and more!
Did you know that FlightAware flight tracking is supported by advertising?
You can help us keep FlightAware free by allowing ads from FlightAware.com. We work hard to keep our advertising relevant and unobtrusive to create a great experience. It's quick and easy to whitelist ads on FlightAware or please consider our premium accounts.
Dismiss