JETLINK PASSENGERS STRANDED IN MOMBASA

Scores of Jetlink Express passengers were stranded at Mombasa’s Moi International Airport after a technical problem grounded their aircraft.
Airline operations manager Jeff Oyier on Tuesday attributed the problem to failure of the navigation computer system.

The problem was discovered as the plane was about to take off and the captain requested his passengers to disembark.
Attempts to immediately solve the problem failed, resulting in engineers being flown in from Kisumu.
“We decided to fly the engineers to Mombasa to replace the failed computer with a new one. But because of the festive season, we had difficulties getting them flights to Mombasa. We then re-directed a 5pm flight from Mwanza to fly the stranded passengers,” Mr Oyier said.
Poor communication
He said an aircraft that is usually on stand-for such emergencies was in use, worsening the stranded passengers’ plight.
He said apart from eight daily flights between Mombasa and Nairobi, the emergency also affected direct commercial flights to some regional destinations.
Jetlink flies to Juba in southern Sudan, Hargessa in Somaliland, Goma in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Bunjumbura in Burundi Mwanza in Zanzibar andDar es Salaam, among other routes.
Passengers complained of poor communication by airline officials.
“I came all the way from Canada to enjoy my holiday with my husband only to face this disappointment. Worse, there is nobody to tell us what’s happening,” said Sonal Hunjan.
Her sister-in-law Puneet Hunjan added: “Nobody is telling us what is going on. The customer care attendant also seems to be unaware of the problem,” she said.