Grumman Gulfstream I accident in Busia
African Commuter Services Grumman G-159 Gulfstream I · The crash of a Grumman Gulfstream I in Busia occurred on 24 January 2003
From Busia Airport, Kenya to Nairobi Airport, Kenya
Event
- NTSB case
- WAS03RA006
- Event typeAccident: someone killed or seriously injured, or the aircraft substantially damaged (NTSB definition). Incident: an occurrence that affected or could have affected safety, short of that. Glossary
- Accident
- InvestigationHow far the investigation had got when the record was published: preliminary, ongoing, final or completed. Unknown where the source does not say. Glossary
- Unknown · led by another country; figures from NTSB notifications
- Event fatalities
- 3 · all aircraft and ground
- Ground fatalities
- Unknown
- Occupants
- Unknown
- Survivors
- 9
- InjuriesFatal: death within 30 days. Serious: over 48 hours in hospital within a week, most broken bones, severe bleeding, nerve or organ damage, or serious burns. Minor: anything less. Glossary
- 11 serious · 0 minor (NTSB)
- OperationWhat kind of flying it was, grouped by the rules it flew under: airline (US Part 121), air taxi and commuter (Part 135), general aviation (Part 91 and similar), military or government. Glossary
- Charter & commuter
- WeatherVisual meteorological conditions (VMC): good enough to fly by looking outside. Instrument conditions (IMC): cloud or low visibility, flying by instruments. Glossary
- Not recorded
Grumman G-159 Gulfstream I
- Aircraft type
- Grumman G-159
- Category
- Airplane · from aircraft type
- RegistrationThe aircraft's tail number, such as N12345 or G-ABCD. Registrations are reissued, so the same one years apart can be a different aircraft. Glossary
- 5Y-EMJ
- Operator
- African Commuter Services
- Onboard fatalities
- 3
- Route
- From Busia Airport, KenyaTo Nairobi Airport, Kenya
- Aircraft age
- Not recorded
- Flight rulesThe regulations the flight operated under: in the US, Part 91 (general aviation), Part 121 (airlines), Part 135 (air taxi and commuter) and others; for flights abroad, the NTSB's coarser commercial or non-commercial code. Glossary
- Non-U.S., Commercial
- Phase of flightThe stage of the flight when things started to go wrong: standing, taxi, takeoff, initial climb, en route, maneuvering, approach or landing. Glossary
- Not recorded
- Defining eventThe single coded event the NTSB judges best describes what happened (records from 2008 on). Older records name the first occurrence in the sequence instead. Glossary
- Not recorded
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- Not recorded
Cause areas
- Aircraft › Aircraft oper/perf/capability
From the investigation findings the Wikipedia article reports, sorted into the NTSB's cause areas with AI assistance.
Approximate · Estimated position: Busia, Kenya, the place the Wikipedia article names. Not the accident site.
From the Wikipedia article
The crash of a Grumman Gulfstream I in Busia occurred on 24 January 2003. In the accident, an aircraft of the type Grumman G-159 Gulfstream I chartered by the Kenyan government crashed shortly after takeoff from Busia Airport. Three people were killed in the accident.
Accident sequence
The aircraft was to operate a flight from Busia to Nairobi. Members of the Kenyan government were on board the Gulfstream. After a takeoff run from the 1000-metre-long runway 13/31 of Busia Airport, the aircraft was unable to gain enough height. The aircraft grazed high-voltage power lines, the wings were torn off and the Gulfstream struck a house upside down.
Investigation and cause
Causes
The investigation found that the weight of the aircraft was too high for a safe departure from Busia Airport. The Gulfstream would have needed a runway 1200 metres long.
The accident investigation found that the aircraft had been maintained and operated under questionable circumstances. It was found that both the documents of the aircraft's captain and those of the aircraft had been forged. Parts that were not certified had been installed in the aircraft. The maintenance personnel were not appropriately trained and had no authorisation to work on the aircraft.
For example, the same aircraft was involved in a serious accident in the Democratic Republic of the Congo on 6 April 1997, in which one person had been killed and the aircraft was badly damaged. After an extensive repair, operation of the aircraft was resumed. In 2000 the aircraft is said to have been involved in another serious accident in Sudan, after which it had actually been regarded as a total loss. The owner of the aircraft, MIA International Ltd., bought the accident aircraft from the insurer, repaired it and had it re-registered, with the registration being changed from 5Y-MIA to 5Y-EMJ.
Translated into English with AI assistance from the German Wikipedia article “Flugunfall einer Grumman Gulfstream I in Busia” (revision 216607371, retrieved 2026-09-19) by its authors, under CC BY-SA 4.0. Extracted as plain text: references, tables, images and some sections are left out; the translation may contain errors, and long articles were cut to their first 700 words. Read the article
Sources
German Wikipedia article: Flugunfall einer Grumman Gulfstream I in Busia
- Translation
- Into English with AI assistance; names of linked operators and aircraft types from Wikidata. It may contain errors.
- Revision
- 216607371 · 2021-10-23 · retrieved 2026-09-19
- Wikidata
- Q65235443
- Licence
- Text CC BY-SA 4.0, by the article's authors; Wikidata CC0; town positions GeoNames (CC BY 4.0)
NTSB record WAS03RA006
- Event ID
- 20030212X00207
- Case number
- WAS03RA006
- Dataset
- historical-pre2008
- Source SHA-256
- 89e2df6d848e7ab3b42e7d7c7a03ff403303057a26ca04c95b3ea67201c3ce74
Where each value comes from
- Record
- de Wikipedia article "Flugunfall einer Grumman Gulfstream I in Busia" (page 10772535, revision 216607371), translated into English with AI assistance; merged with NTSB case WAS03RA006 (events / aircraft)
- Date
- Wikipedia infobox: date
- Place and country
- Wikipedia infobox: site
- Map position
- Wikipedia: place the Wikipedia infobox site links (Wikidata coordinates)
- Aircraft, operator and route
- Wikipedia infobox: aircraft type, registration, operator, origin and destination; route airports from the linked airport articles' Wikidata codes (OurAirports); gaps and aircraft details from NTSB record WAS03RA006
- Operation
- Reviewed correction (2026-09-26): A Gulfstream of African Commuter Services chartered to fly government members: a charter by a small operator. The article: "an aircraft of the type Grumman G-159 Gulfstream I chartered by the Kenyan government crashed shortly after takeoff from Busia Airport"
- Fatalities
- Wikipedia: Wikipedia infobox: aircraft fatalities
- Ground fatalities
- Wikipedia: not stated in the Wikipedia infobox
- Summary
- Wikipedia article lead
Source notes (2)
- One occurrence in two sources, merged: the Wikipedia article "Grumman Gulfstream I accident in Busia" and NTSB case WAS03RA006, matched by the same aircraft registration and date. For this event outside the United States Wikipedia's values are used where the two differ; each value names its source.
- No bulk values were replaced by the NTSB case API.