By Kieran MurrayNairobi - Most of the passengers on Kenya Airways flight KQ431 were Nigerians who would have left the plane before it crashed if weather had not forced it to overfly Lagos, airline officials said. It was heading back to Lagos when it crashed in the sea on Sunday night with most of the original passengers still aboard. He said said Kenya Airways had bought the aircraft new in October 1986 and it was considered "relatively new" in arline terms. Kenya Airways, which is 26 percent owned by Dutch airline KLM, is a small airline with a previously enviable safety record. "This is our first accident," said Kenya Airways spokesperson Koome Mwambia said.

Source: The North Africa Journal September 12, 2017 23:15 UTC