KAA confirms Moi International Airport's "emergency" was a planned safety drill

The Kenya Airports Authority (KAA) has clarified that a series of emergency events at Moi International Airport in Mombasa were not real, but part of a planned safety and security drill.

The drill, which happened on Tuesday, caused panic among some airport users who thought a real emergency was taking place.

KAA has now confirmed that it was only a simulation, a practice run to test how prepared the airport is in case of real emergencies.

The exercise included two major mock incidents. In the first, an aircraft was made to look like it was about to take off when smoke was spotted inside the cabin. Emergency teams quickly responded, “evacuated” the passengers, "treated injuries” and put out the “fire”, all part of the drill.

In the second scenario, two fake explosions were staged at the General Aviation Terminal. This was meant to test how well the airport and other security agencies could respond to a sabotage or bomb threat.

In a statement, KAA explained that the simulation exercise was designed to test and reinforce the airport’s preparedness and response capacity in the event of real emergencies, in line with safety requirements by the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) and Kenya Civil Aviation Regulations.

"The drills were part of KAA's continued commitment to strengthening airport emergency preparedness and ensuring world-class safety and security standards," said the Authority.

"As mandated by the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) and mandated Kenya Civil Aviation Regulations, airports are required to conduct such full-scale emergency drills at least once every two years to evaluate their emergency response capabilities."

The authority assured the public that the drill posed no real danger to passengers, crew members, or operations.