A major air disaster drill at Nairobi's main airport yesterday sparked a scare that an airliner had crashed, fooling even police and airport authorities.
"They've caught us completely unawares, it was a very realistic drill," said a Kenyan police source at the airport.
He one of scores of security personnel who rushed to the airport in answer to the security alert.
Helicopters buzzed overhead as part of the exercise.
About 200 soldiers, policemen, doctors, Red Cross emergency workers and Kenya Wildlife Service emergency workers milled around on the tarmac in a corner of the airport, witnesses said.
They all said they had rushed to the airport believing there really had been a crash.
Witnesses at a major Nairobi hospital reported seeing helicopters landing in the grounds in what appeared to be a real emergency situation.
The Health Minister, Mr Sam Ongeri, was among the crowd at the airport and said he too had gone there believing a crash had occurred.
Earlier, taken in by the disaster drill, Kenya's KTN television news reported that 76 people were feared dead after an airliner had crashed at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport.
The ploy fooled a Kenya Airports Authority spokesman, who told Reuters that nine people had been killed when a Boeing 737 airliner had crashed at about 7 p.m. local time.
Almost exactly three years ago a security drill sent authorities into a similar tailspin, with rescuers, doctors, reporters and medics believing they had a real air crash on their hands. - (Reuters)