Pilots landing a Virgin Atlantic Airbus A340-300 at night in Nairobi were forced to execute a late go-around after the jet entered an unexpected fog bank on touchdown, and strayed almost completely off the side of the runway.

Investigators from the UK are trying to understand why visibility information transmitted to the crew during the 27 April approach apparently differed greatly from the conditions recorded by automated sensors.

Although both pilots had good visual contact with runway 06’s approach lights at the 200ft decision height, the aircraft entered fog while still at 20ft and the first officer, flying the jet, lost sight of the right-hand runway edge lights.

As the A340 touched down it remained on its

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