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BREAKING NEWS: Kenya Airways Boeing 737 crashed in Cameroon
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Source: Airtransportnews.aero
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06/05/2007
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A Boeing 737-800 operating Kenya (KQ-507) flight from Abidjan to Nairobi via Douala, crashed 12 minutes after take-off from Douala. According to Cameroon Authorities the ATC received a distress call. After 17 hours finally Cameroon State Radio reported that the aircraft has crashed near Niete, in Southern Cameroon. The major concern was how to get there, since Cameroon Air Force was a very short fleet of aircraft/helicopters. This specific location is also close to the border with Equatorial Guinea, but even this country has also a very small Air Force fleet to cover the search and rescue operation. There were 106 passengers with 9 crew, totalling 115 souls on board. Passengers were of over 20 nationalities.
The flight departed Douala at 12:05 a.m. and was scheduled to arrive in Nairobi at 6:15 a.m. According to the airlines' schedule the flight is normally served by Boeing 767-300, but today because of low loads a Boeing 737 was used.
Kenya Airways-507 was a Boeing 737-8AL registration 5Y-KYA c/n 35069/2079 delivered to the the airline on 27/10/2006. Few days ago, on April 30 the same plane operating a flight to Johannesburg performed an emergency landing back to Nairobi airport. Of course this has nothing to do with today's disaster. During the take-off of Kenya-507 the weather conditions in Douala was very poor. The flight arrived with 1 hour delay in Douala from Abidjan due to heavy rain.
At a Press Conference held few hours after the accident, Kenya Airways chief executive Mr. Titus Naikuni announced: "Douala Air Traffic Control lost contact with our Boeing 737 on its way to Nairobi from Douala in Cameroon. The plane was carrying 106 passengers and nine crew members. We have no information yet for what happened to our aircraft.
The company said it has set up a crisis centre to monitor events and a passenger information centre at Panari and Intercontinental hotels in Nairobi.
"The airline has set up crisis telephone numbers to help relatives and friends of the passengers to get information. The numbers are +254 20 3200535/4, +254 20 3274349 in Nairobi and +27 11 2071100 in South Africa".
The previous accident of Kenya Airways was back in year of 2000 when an Airbus A310 crashed into the sea immediately after take-off from Abidjan on a scheduled flight to Nairobi, killing 169 passengers and 10 crew members. This flight was a scheduled route from Nairobi to Lagos and then Abidjan, but due to poor weather conditions in Lagos the flight directly flew to Abidjan.
This is the most serious accident in Africa during the last five years, and the second for Kenya Airways during the last 15 years.
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» Hamdi Chaouk, Director General of Civil Aviation – Lebanon
