Cameroon plane crash wreckage found
The wreckage of an aircraft which crashed in southern Cameroon with 114 people - including five Britons – on board was found tonight.
Air traffic controllers lost contact with Kenya Airways flight KQ507 shortly after it took off from Douala in Cameroon at around midnight yesterday.
Rescuers spent more than 40 hours searching for the crashed Boeing 737-800 across a huge area of dense rainforest in drenching rain and thick fog.
After several false reports that the wreckage had been found, it was finally located in a mangrove forest about 6 miles outside Douala, local aviation officials said.
Thomas Sobakam, chief of meteorology for Douala airport, said there was no information on whether there were any survivors or on the condition of the aircraft.
The aircraft, which was only six-months-old, originated in Abidjan in the Ivory Coast but stopped in the coastal city of Douala to pick up more passengers, including all five Britons.
It took off again bound for the Kenyan capital Nairobi but shortly afterwards sent out an automatic distress signal.
The British nationals on board were named today as married couple Adam and Sarah Stewart, Anthony Mitchell, Stuart Claisse and Gordon Wright.
A Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) spokesman said their next of kin had been informed but could not disclose any more details.
Mr Mitchell, 39, is a journalist with the Associated Press news agency based in Nairobi.
He had been on assignment in the region for the past week and had contacted his family before boarding the flight to tell them he was heading home.
Mr Mitchell, who is originally from London, lives in Nairobi with his wife Catherine and their children Tom, three, and Rose, one.
Mrs Stewart is chief financial officer for South African mobile phone giant MTN’s Cameroon operations.
The company said she and three other MTN executives also on the aircraft were travelling to a business meeting in South Africa.
The FCO said staff from London and Nigeria were flying to the Cameroon capital Yaounde to help consular officials there.
A British team will travel to the crash site either tonight or tomorrow morning once they confirm where the wreckage has been found.
Kenya Airways said earlier today that the aircraft’s emergency transmitter had stopped sending out signals after its initial distress call.
“Why the signal is not being heard right now, we’re not quite sure,” airline chief executive Titus Naikuni told reporters in Nairobi.
The aircraft took off an hour late because of heavy rain, but Douala airport officials said this was unlikely to have caused the crash.
Mr Sobakam said: “There was a thunderstorm, but there were other planes that left after (the Kenya Airways flight to Nairobi) that had no problems.”
Officials said it was too early to tell what might have caused the plane to go down between 11 and 13 minutes after take-off.
Kenya Airways, which is considered one of Africa’s safest airlines, said most of the passengers were planning to transfer to ongoing flights in Nairobi.
The US National Transportation Safety Board is sending a team to assist Cameroon in its investigation of the crash.
Boeing spokesman Jim Proulx said there were no safety concerns with the US aerospace company’s 737-800s.
He said: “We express our profound concern for the passengers and crew on board on the Kenya Airways flight that went missing.”
It is the first crash involving an international Kenya Airways flight since January 30 2000, when Flight 431 plunged into the sea shortly after taking off from Abidjan in the Ivory Coast, killing 169 people.
