KENYA PLANE 'CRASHES IN CAMEROON' !
Worried friends and relatives are gathering at Kenya's main airport.
Friends and relatives
Friends and relatives
A Kenya Airways plane with 114 people on board has reportedly crashed in southern Cameroon.
The flight, which originated in Ivory Coast, was reported missing on Saturday after it failed to arrive in Nairobi.
Cameroon state radio said the plane came down south of Douala, although Kenya Airways has only confirmed so far that it is missing.
People from at least 23 different nationalities were on board, including five Britons, the airline said.
Kenya's national carrier has a good safety record. However, 169 people died when one of its planes crashed in 2000.
The BBC's Karen Allen in Nairobi says the Boeing 737-800 involved in Saturday's incident was just six months old and was part of a new fleet bought by the airline.
Our correspondent says it will raise questions of whether other aircraft will be taken out of service.
Bad weather
Flight KQ 507 originated in Abidjan in Ivory Coast and left Douala in Cameroon at 0005 local time (0105 GMT) on Saturday. It was due to arrive in Nairobi at 0615 (0315 GMT).
Kenya Airways said the last communication with the missing plane was received by the control tower in Douala, on Cameroon's coast, shortly after take-off.
Cameroon radio initially said the plane came down near Niete, south along the coast from Douala, although later reports suggested the crash had happened further inland.
"The search location has now been centred around 100kms (62 miles) south-west of [Cameroon's capital] Yaounde," Kenyan Airways chief executive Titus Naikuni told a news conference.
He said an extensive search of the area by low-flying aircraft had found nothing, and a second search team was on its way to the site.
Poor weather is reported to have hampered the rescue effort.
Kenyan Transport Minister Chirau Ali Makwere - who is leading a team of Kenya Airways and government officials to Douala - said it was too early to determine what had happened to the plane.
"We need to get information from the technical experts as to whether it was occasioned by the weather or pilot error or mechanical fault," he was quoted by the Associated Press as saying.
The flight, which originated in Ivory Coast, was reported missing on Saturday after it failed to arrive in Nairobi.
Cameroon state radio said the plane came down south of Douala, although Kenya Airways has only confirmed so far that it is missing.
People from at least 23 different nationalities were on board, including five Britons, the airline said.
Kenya's national carrier has a good safety record. However, 169 people died when one of its planes crashed in 2000.
The BBC's Karen Allen in Nairobi says the Boeing 737-800 involved in Saturday's incident was just six months old and was part of a new fleet bought by the airline.
Our correspondent says it will raise questions of whether other aircraft will be taken out of service.
Bad weather
Flight KQ 507 originated in Abidjan in Ivory Coast and left Douala in Cameroon at 0005 local time (0105 GMT) on Saturday. It was due to arrive in Nairobi at 0615 (0315 GMT).
Kenya Airways said the last communication with the missing plane was received by the control tower in Douala, on Cameroon's coast, shortly after take-off.
Cameroon radio initially said the plane came down near Niete, south along the coast from Douala, although later reports suggested the crash had happened further inland.
"The search location has now been centred around 100kms (62 miles) south-west of [Cameroon's capital] Yaounde," Kenyan Airways chief executive Titus Naikuni told a news conference.
He said an extensive search of the area by low-flying aircraft had found nothing, and a second search team was on its way to the site.
Poor weather is reported to have hampered the rescue effort.
Kenyan Transport Minister Chirau Ali Makwere - who is leading a team of Kenya Airways and government officials to Douala - said it was too early to determine what had happened to the plane.
"We need to get information from the technical experts as to whether it was occasioned by the weather or pilot error or mechanical fault," he was quoted by the Associated Press as saying.
NATIONALITIES OF MISSING
35 Cameroon
15 India
9 Kenya (crew)
7 South Africa
6 China
6 Ivory Coast
6 Nigeria
5 Britain
3 Niger
2 Central African Republic
2 Democratic Republic of Congo
2 Equatorial Guinea
1 Ghana; Sweden; Togo; Mali; Switzerland; Comoros; Egypt; Mauritius; Senegal; Congo; Tanzania; US; Burkina Faso
3 unidentified
Source: Kenya Airways
A crisis management centre has been set up in Nairobi. A number of worried friends and relatives have been gathering at the capital's Jomo Kenyatta International Airport.
"We have been told to sit and wait," one relative of a missing passenger told AFP news agency.
"A lot of people are crying, people are asking what is happening."
The Kenya Airways website says the fleet is 23 strong. It is 26%-owned by Air France KLM's Dutch company KLM.
In January 2000 a Kenya Airways plane crashed into the sea after taking off from Abidjan airport in Ivory Coast killing 169 people. There were 10 survivors.
Labels: Kenya-Airways Crash AirFrance Nairobi KLM Cameroon Niete Ivory-Coast Plane Missing KQ507
posted by jackaranda at 4:24 pm
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