Family, friends and mourners gathered in Murang’a County on Friday to bid farewell to 20-year-old pilot trainee Moses Wachira Kariuki, who died alongside his flight instructor in a training aircraft crash in Kajiado County a week ago.
A requiem service for Kariuki was held at ACK St Paul’s Kirungu before the cortege proceeded to the family farm in Wahundura Village, Mathioya Sub-County, for burial. Published funeral arrangements said his body was to be collected from Montezuma Funeral Home in Kabati on Friday morning ahead of the church service.
Kariuki, who was training to become a commercial pilot at the Kenya School of Flying, died on September 18 after the school’s light aircraft crashed in the Kipeto area of Kajiado West during a routine training flight.
His flight instructor, Alex Oluka, also died in the accident.
Police said the aircraft was flying near the Kipeto Wind Power Project when it went down in the hilly terrain. Kariuki, the student pilot, died at the scene, while his instructor succumbed to his injuries while being taken to hospital.
Kajiado West Sub-County Police Commander Maureen Kuto said preliminary information suggested poor visibility caused by heavy morning mist may have contributed to the accident.
According to the preliminary police account, those aboard encountered poor visibility and attempted an emergency landing before the aircraft crashed. Aviation authorities were subsequently called in to investigate the circumstances of the accident.
The preliminary assessment, however, is not a final determination of the cause of the crash. A conclusive cause would require findings from the aviation accident investigation.
Young aviation dream cut short
Kariuki was born on June 5, 2006, and came from Wahundura Village in Murang’a County. He was the son of Hezron Kariuki Thiong’o and Leah Muthoni Kariuki and was one of five siblings.
At the time of his death, he was enrolled at the Kenya School of Flying as a commercial pilot trainee, pursuing what family accounts and reports described as his ambition to build a career in aviation.
The fatal flight was part of his pilot training. The Nation reported that the aircraft had departed from the Kenya School of Flying’s operations at Orly Park in Birika and crashed a few kilometres away near the Kipeto wind turbines.
The accident left the families of both men mourning lives lost while pursuing careers in aviation and renewed attention on the risks involved in flight training.
Images from the crash site showed the aircraft extensively damaged, with wreckage scattered across the ground as emergency personnel, police and residents responded.
For Kariuki’s family, Friday’s service marked the final journey home for a young man whose ambition to become a commercial pilot ended just months after his 20th birthday.
He was laid to rest at the family home in Wahundura Village following the church service.
About the Author
