{"id":134965,"date":"2026-03-21T07:02:45","date_gmt":"2026-03-21T07:02:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/osotsi-calls-for-closure-of-wilson-airport-after-plane-veers-off-runway\/"},"modified":"2026-03-21T07:02:45","modified_gmt":"2026-03-21T07:02:45","slug":"osotsi-calls-for-closure-of-wilson-airport-after-plane-veers-off-runway","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/osotsi-calls-for-closure-of-wilson-airport-after-plane-veers-off-runway\/","title":{"rendered":"Osotsi calls for closure of Wilson Airport after plane veers off runway"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>NAIROBI, Kenya, Mar 21 \u2014 Vihiga Senator Geoffrey Osotsi has called for the immediate closure of Wilson Airport following a Friday evening incident in which a passenger aircraft veered off the runway.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>In a statement following the incident, Osotsi\u2014one of the thirty-nine passengers on board\u2014called for the shutdown of the facility to allow for a comprehensive upgrade to meet international safety standards.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI thank God for His protection after I came out safely from an aircraft accident\u2026 Wilson Airport must [be] closed and comprehensively upgraded\u2026 The safety of Kenyans and all air passengers must never [be] compromised,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>The Senator described the landing as a \u201ccrash-landing,\u201d praising the pilot\u2019s actions for averting a potentially catastrophic fire by steering the aircraft off the runway.<\/p>\n<p>However, he sharply criticised what he termed as a lack of emergency preparedness, alleging that there were no immediate rescue operations, no ambulance on site, and no emergency response team available to assist passengers.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis level of unpreparedness [is] unacceptable for an airport of such significance,\u201d Osotsi said.<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Failing infrastructure <\/h2>\n<p>He further linked the incident to broader concerns he had previously raised in the Senate regarding deteriorating infrastructure at the airport, including claims of a flooded runway and faulty lighting systems. <\/p>\n<p>The politician argued that such conditions often force the diversion of evening flights toJomo Kenyatta International Airport, questioning the decision to clear the affected flight at Wilson.<\/p>\n<p>In a statement, Kenya Airports Authority (KAA) confirmed that the aircraft, arriving from Kisumu, veered off the runway at around 8.55pm.<\/p>\n<p>Kenya Airports Authority said emergency teams safely evacuated all thirty-nine passengers and crew members, with no injuries reported.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe wish to confirm that all passengers and crew are safe, with no injuries reported,\u201d the authority said.<\/p>\n<p>The agency added that operations at Wilson Airport remain normal and reiterated its commitment to maintaining high safety standards across all airports.<\/p>\n<p>The incident is likely to intensify scrutiny over safety and infrastructure at Wilson Airport, a busy hub for domestic and regional flights in Nairobi.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>NAIROBI, Kenya, Mar 21 \u2014 Vihiga Senator Geoffrey Osotsi has called for the immediate closure of Wilson Airport following a Friday evening incident in which a passenger aircraft veered off the runway. In a statement following the incident, Osotsi\u2014one of the thirty-nine passengers on board\u2014called for the shutdown of the facility to allow for a [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-134965","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","entry"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/134965","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=134965"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/134965\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=134965"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=134965"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=134965"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}