Five killed as plane crashes in Kenya

Five people have died after a small plane carrying them from Kenya's Maasai Mara nature reserve crashed in the west of the country, police said Wednesday.

"There were five occupants in the plane and they did not survive," said Edward Mwamburi, police chief for the Rift Valley region.

He said the Cessna plane was heading from the Maasai Mara to Lodwar, near Lake Turkana.

The craft crashed in Masaita Forest View Village and landed on a farm a few minutes after 11 am.

Mwamburi said police and rescue teams were headed to the scene.

The cause of the crash was not immediately established and investigators have started investigations.

In June last year, a plane belonging to the FlySAX airline crashed on the edge of the Aberdares mountain range, leaving 10 people dead.

Kenya has a vibrant airline industry, with national airline Kenya Airways operating internationally and locally alongside successful low-cost airlines and charter companies.

According to the International Air Transport Association (IATA) in 2014, some 130,000 planes land and take off from Kenya each year, and the country has 35 operating airlines.

The IATA said Kenya's air transport infrastructure quality ranks 6th out of 37 countries surveyed in Africa.

In October 2017 five passengers were killed when a helicopter crashed into Lake Nakuru, while in 2012 a helicopter carrying internal security minister George Saitoti crashed, killing all six passengers on board.

Kenya's worst crash in recent years took place in 2007, when a Kenya Airways flight from Abidjan to Nairobi via Douala crashed into a swamp after take-off, killing all 114 passengers.

In 2000 another Kenya Airways flight from Abidjan to Nairobi crashed into the Atlantic Ocean minutes after take-off, killing 169 people while 10 survived.