Kenya Airways plane crashes in Cameroon no Survivors reported
Pastor Dale Morgan
*
Saturday May 5, 7:20 PM Reuters
*Kenya Airways plane crashes in Cameroon no Survivors reported*
By Tansa Musa
YAOUNDE (Reuters) - A Kenya Airways passenger plane bound for Nairobi
with 114 people on board crashed in southern Cameroon on Saturday
shortly after takeoff, the central African country's state radio said.
The plane crashed near Niete, south of the Cameroonian port town of
Kribi and north of the border with Equatorial Guinea, after taking off
from Cameroon's second city of Douala, the radio said. It gave no
further details.
In Nairobi, Kenya Airways Group Managing Director Titus Naikuni declined
to confirm the radio report but said authorities in Cameroon had picked
up an automatic distress signal from the area where the plane went missing.
"The distress call came from a machine, not a pilot," he said.
Kenya government spokesman Alfred Mutua told the news conference the
signal was coming from an area about 35 nautical miles (64.8 kilometres)
southwest of Douala.
"They have a helicopter in the area," he said, adding there had been no
report yet from that mission.
Kenya Airways said the 737-800 airliner, which began its journey in
Ivory Coast's main city Abidjan and stopped over in Cameroon, was
carrying 105 passengers and nine crew. Officials had earlier said there
were 106 passengers.
The airline said there were 34 Cameroonians, 15 Indians, seven South
Africans, six Chinese, five Britons and one American among the
passengers, the bulk of whom were from African countries. The nine crew
were all Kenyans.
The company said the Douala control tower had received the last message
from the aircraft right after takeoff. The plane had been due to land in
Nairobi at 6:15 a.m. (4:15 a.m. British time).
Kenya Airways, one of Africa's few profitable carriers, set up a crisis
centre to monitor events and a passenger information centre at a hotel
in Nairobi.
The carrier generally has a good safety record on a continent where air
accidents are above the world average.
The plane was six months old and had no history of problems, Naikuni
said. Kenyan media reported there was rain in Douala when the plane took
off.
On January 30, 2000, a Kenya Airways Airbus A-310 crashed into the sea
shortly after takeoff from Abidjan, killing 169 of the 179 passengers
and crew.