Search for Missing Kenya Airways Jet Underway

Search for missing Kenya Airways jet underway

NAIROBI, May 5 (Xinhua) — Officials with Kenya’s national airline, Kenya Airways, said a search is underway to locate the aircraft which went missing in southern Cameroon early Saturday.

The airline Managing Director Titus Naikuni told a news conference late Saturday the search and rescue efforts is underway adding that the whereabouts of the KQ 507 flight, missing since midnight, has not yet been determined despite concerted efforts by the Cameroonian authorities to locate it.

Naikuni said aviation helicopters were combing a wide zone in Cameroon between Kribi on the Atlantic coast and Ngomedzap, south of the capital Yaounde.

“We are in constant touch with Cameroonian civil aviation authorities but they have not sighted the aircraft,” Naikuni told journalists in Nairobi.

“A search party sent out early this morning to the scene, where a signal last originated from, has failed to sight the plane. A helicopter flying low over the suspected crash site 100 km southwest of Yaounde has not sighted the missing plane,” said Naikuni.

“The search team is combing the area which is much near Yaounde than Douala where the plane took off.”

The flight originated from Cote d’Ivoire but was stopping over in Cameroon’s largest city in order to pick up more passengers on route to the East African country of Kenya.

Naikuni added rescue efforts had been intensified with a second search party already over the area where the last signal originated from.

It is not yet known if the 105 passengers and nine members of cabin crew survived the crash.

Kenya Airways officials said they have not received official information concerning the Boeing 737-800, which was reported missing on Saturday after it failed to arrive in Nairobi.

Naikuni said people from at least 24 different nationalities were on board, including 34 Cameroonians, 15 Indians, seven Southern Africans, six Chinese and five Britons.

Kenya Airways is Africa’s second largest carrier and operates a route network serving 30 destinations in Africa and more than 25 cities worldwide.

The airline generally has a good safety record on the continent where air accidents are above the world average.

The last crash of an international Kenya Airways flight was on Jan. 30, 2000, when Flight 431 was taking off from Abidjan of Cote d’Ivoire, on its way to Nairobi. Investigators blamed a faulty alarm and pilot error for that crash, which killed at least 169 people.

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