This archive report was first published on 6 November 2019.
On November 5, 2019, a Kenya Airways Boeing 787 was forced to return to Johannesburg after a maintenance engineer allegedly stowed away on the plane.
The aircraft had departed from Johannesburg to Nairobi when the crew realized that a mechanic was still on board, according to The Aviation Herald.
As the plane climbed out of South Africa's financial capital, the crew was informed that the maintenance engineer should have been left behind.
"He's here and conscious!" the crew reportedly said after discovering the stowaway.
Kenya Airways, however, denied the claims of a 'stowaway', stating that the flight turned back due to operational reasons.
Despite the initial delay, the aircraft departed again and landed in Nairobi after a 105-minute delay.
This incident is not the first time a KQ flight has been rocked by a stowaway incident, with a similar incident occurring in June when a body of a male stowaway fell off a Kenya Airways plane moments before it landed at London's Heathrow Airport.
