IN SHORT: Since Kenya’s Renegade Air launched a new route to Homa Bay in the west of the country, rumours have flown on social media about the airline’s fleet. But this photo shows a damaged plane on Tobago in the Caribbean, far away from Kenya.
“Aircraft misses runway at Kabunde Airstrip in Homa Bay, lands at somebody's home, killing a cow, two goats and a dog. The plane has been towed back to the Airstrip,” reads the caption on an image posted on Facebook. It shows the dented nose of an aircraft with a reddish-brown stain.
Homa Bay is a Kenyan county located in the southern part of Nyanza, along the southern shores of Lake Victoria. Kabunde airstrip is the only airstrip in the county that meets aviation standards.
Renegade Air is a regional airline based at Wilson Airport in the Kenyan capital Nairobi, and which was established in 2012. The airline added an additional route to Homa Bay on 12 June 2023, which was celebrated by a launch event at Kabunde airstrip.
Renegade Air is the only airline currently operating regular scheduled flights to Kabunde airstrip in Homa Bay.
The image has been shared here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here and here with similar captions.
But is this a photo of a damaged Renegade Air aircraft, taken at Homa Bay? We checked.
Aircraft landed in Tobago in the Caribbean
A reverse image search on Google revealed that the aircraft is from the Caribbean Airlines fleet. The photo was taken after the plane suffered a bird strike on 24 June on its way to Tobago, an island in the Caribbean, part of the island nation of Trinidad and Tobago.
The plane landed safely at ANR Robinson International Airport, Tobago’s only international airport.
On 26 June Renegade Air posted a statement on their official Facebook page confirming that the image circulating social media was not from its fleet: “The images circulating are of an incident involving ATR-72-600 in Trinidad and Tobago and is in no way associated with Renegade Air.”
Ignore social media rumours that this plane landed in Homa Bay county in Kenya.
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