A student pilot and a flight instructor were killed on Friday when a small aircraft crashed during a training flight in southern Kenya, police said.
The aircraft came down near a wind farm in Kipeto, a hilly area of Kajiado County, southwest of Nairobi, according to Kajiado West police commander Maureen Kuto.
The identities of the two victims had not been released at the time of filing the report.
Footage from the crash site showed the aircraft broken into several sections across a dry field, with red-and-white police tape cordoning off the area as emergency and security personnel examined the wreckage.
Dozens of uniformed schoolchildren gathered near the scene as authorities responded to the crash.
A local resident, Duncan Akaranga, whose child attends a nearby school, said residents were shocked that the aircraft had crashed so close to the school.
“We are really shocked because this crash happened next to the school,” Akaranga said.
He noted that the area was surrounded by several schools and had many students, adding that a crash in a more populated section could have resulted in a larger number of casualties.
Witnesses who spoke to The Associated Press said heavy morning mist had reduced visibility in the area around the time of the crash.
Authorities were expected to investigate the circumstances surrounding the accident, including the weather conditions and the cause of the aircraft’s failure.
