Daily Nation misrepresented facts in the Kenya Airways (KQ) story, where it alleged that the national carrier would proceed to buy the faulted Boeing 737 Max 8 jets.
In a rejoinder, KQ chairman Michael Joseph said that the publication misquoted him, saying that KQ has not ordered any planes, contrary to what Nation reported.
“We have not ordered any planes. How can we cancel something we have not ordered? I never said what was reported. I said we would review it if and when the time came,” tweeted Joseph.
In the article published on March 25 by Business Daily and on March 26 by Nation, the publication reported that “KQ will not cancel its orders for the Boeing 737-800 Max jets”.
In the article, it was alleged that KQ was planning to order up to 10 of the planes worth an estimated Sh120 billion ($1.2 billion).
“We hope that between now and the time when we are ready to acquire the new fleet, Boeing will have solved the current problem,” KQ Chairman Michael Joseph told Nation.
Read: KQ Flies On The Boeing 737 Max 8 Plan Amid Safety Concerns
The reports came even as most countries grounded the model on reports that it has a defect in a safety software feature, called the Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System (MCAS).
The software is believed to have been the cause of two accidents (Indonesia and Ethiopia) that claimed that lives of 346 people.
In October 2018, a crush of the same model crashed in Indonesia killing 189 people, while a crash in Ethiopia this months saw 157 people die, 36 of them being Kenyans.
Boeing is now staring at a Ksh5.7 trillion ($57 billion) in case countries decide to cancel orders for the 737 Max 8, which are likely to turn to the competitor, Airbus.
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