F1 star Alonso in Kenyan plane mishap

[TallDutch]

Renault Formula One driver Fernando Alonso’s holiday in Malindi ended on a sour note when his private jet hit a wall at the Malindi airport and was forced to cancel his journey to Italy.

The incident occurred on Sunday as Mr Alonso, his wife and relatives were about to fly out. The jet’s left lower wing was damaged when it hit the wall as it taxied out of the parking lot.

More info can be found here:
http://www.nation.co.ke/News/-/1056/510 ... index.html

[TCAS_climb]

Quote from the article:

"The accident was due to small space at the airport"

How about "pilot's reckless disregard of safety instructions advising him another taxi routing made by a guy on the ground with a better spatial awareness" ?

Any idea on the type/reg/operator of the jet ?

[TCAS]

Any idea on the type/reg/operator of the jet ?

Dassault Falcon 900C s/n 181 reg. EC-JNZ

[luchtpak]

Quote from the article:

"The accident was due to small space at the airport"

How about "pilot's reckless disregard of safety instructions advising him another taxi routing made by a guy on the ground with a better spatial awareness" ?

Thank god you were there to promptly conclude the investigation. When is your report being published?

Imagine we were to rely on the accurate, non-biased reporting of the press.

Serious guys, sometimes it's just a matter of "you had to be there". Any number of reasons could have made the captain decide against the advice given.

[TCAS_climb]

Uhu... Like what ? You were there too ?

[LX-LGX]

Contrary to news reports, the plane was not on his way to the runway: he was just going from his soft ground parking place to the tarmac apron, positioning to embark pax and luggage.

Contrary to news reports, Alonso and party were not onboard yet.

"... safety instructions advising him another taxi routing made by a guy on the ground with a better spatial awareness..." I like this sense of humour, but hey this is an airport in Africa, and I don't think Malindi has such staff on it's payroll.

"... another taxi routing...": ??? Quote from the official site: "the apron area is about 4,500 metres square and can accommodate two aircraft of F-50 type." So there aren't much taxi routings available.

Malindi Airport, official site:
http://www.kenyaairports.co.ke/kaa/airports/malindi

Malindi, photo:
http://northwoodaviation.com/images/p001_1_00.png

[TCAS_climb]

Oh, so you mean that the guy with the yellow high visibility jacket and ping-pong bats shown in the picture of the official Malindi airport website is just a walk-on actor hired for the occasion ?


Are you all trying to find out any possible excuse in an attempt to bury the simple truth that the only guy who had control on the Falcon's trajectory screwed up big time despite a warning from a guy who knows the place like his pocket, or what ???


How about an entire monkey tribe jumping at the aircraft, messing up with nose-wheel steering and severing the brake lines as contributing factor to the serious incident ?

[LX-LGX]

Oh, so you mean that the guy with the yellow high visibility jacket and ping-pong bats shown in the picture of the official Malindi airport website is just a walk-on actor hired for the occasion?

No, not an actor: a ground handler - probably from Kenya Airways.

Are you all trying to find out any possible excuse in an attempt to bury the simple truth that the only guy who had control on the Falcon's trajectory screwed up big time despite a warning from a guy who knows the place like his pocket, or what ???

Who says there was such guy around? It's obvious that you haven't been in many African local airports yet. Pilots from charter planes arriving on / departing from airports like this one don't have ground staff to assist them for whatever they do.

For you, it's "pilot's reckless disregard of safety instructions advising him another taxi routing made by a guy on the ground with a better spatial awareness". For me, it's more human error.


(parking fee for Alonso's Falcon at Malindi Airport was 10 USD per day...)

[TCAS_climb]

Disregarding safety instructions isn't a human error ?

[luchtpak]

Disregarding safety instructions isn't a human error ?

Just out of curiosity, may I ask what your aviation background is?

[TCAS_climb]

Hey, a friend just sent me some pics. Turns out the "terminal building" hit was actually the airport fence. There's indeed limited damage to the wingtip.

http://www.corriere.it/cronache/09_genn ... aabc.shtml

Isn't it a TAG Aviation aircraft ? Heard a strange rumour about TAG's AOC being withdrawn by the Spanish CAA. Anyone can confirm ?