Nairobi — Kenya Airways, and the Air Traffic Control in Netherlands and Germany Saturday said they have launched a probe on an incident where a Boeing plane lost Air Traffic control while flying over Germany on September 20.
The airline through a statement said the officials are yet to determine the cause of the incident and will take corrective action even as it confirmed that the plane which was en route to Amsterdam from Nairobi lost communication temporarily at 6 am German time.
"A Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner en route to Amsterdam from Nairobi temporarily lost contact with Air Traffic Control (ATC) while flying over Germany," reads KQ statement.
According to KQ, the pilots were however able to re-establish communications using an alternative frequency and continued with the flight as normal, safely landing on schedule on Amsterdam.
A flight incident tracker called the Aviation Herald first reported the incident revealing that the airline lost communication with authorities while in German airspace.
"Two Eurofighters were dispatched to intercept the aircraft causing wake-up calls by supersonic booms to many residents on the ground from Landshut to Frankfurt/Main. Germany’s DFS reported communication with a Kenyan Aircraft had been lost prompting information to Germany’s Bundeswehr who dispatched two Eurofighters. Germany’s Bundeswehr reported they were dispatching two Eurofighters to intercept an airliner with destination Amsterdam," Aviation Herald wrote.
KQ noted that the incident also was not uncommon in aviation as an aircraft may lose contact with Air Traffic Control due to reasons such as power failure.
"We would like to assure our customers that their safety and our crew is our highest priority," KQ said.
