Kenya Airways management only admitted the incident that happened in German airspace after aviation blogs reported about it.
Kenya Airways Flight KQ118 was intercepted by two Eurofighter jets in German airspace on Monday September 20th 2021.
Flight KQ118 left Nairobi destined for Amsterdam, Netherlands but developed technical problems while in German airspace.
Kenya Airways Boeing 787-8, registered as 5Y-KZE, lost communications with air traffic controllers over Germany prompting the country’s air force to scramble fighter jets to intercept the airliner.
The Aviation Herald reported that German air force dispatched two Eurofighter jets to intercept the Kenya Airways plane after it was unable to be reached.
With the fighter jets able to intercept the flight KQ118 and got their attention, communication was restored. The Dreamliner then continued on to Amsterdam for a safe landing approximately 30 minutes later.
Given the location where communication loss was experienced, many have speculated that Kenya Airways crew failed to switch frequencies when moving from Austrian airspace to German airspace.
Kenya Airways through a statement said officials are yet to determine the cause of the incident and will take corrective action even as it confirmed that the plane 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.
Kenya Airways also said that the pilots were able to re-establish communications using an alternative frequency and continued with the flight as normal, safely landing on schedule on Amsterdam.
KQ further 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,” said Kenya Airways.
