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Plane With U.S. Tourists Crashes in Kenya

Posted on: Sunday, 20 July 2003, 06:00 CDT

A South African-registered plane believed to have been carrying a dozen American tourists has crashed into Mount Kenya, apparently killing everyone on board, the senior game warden in the area said Sunday.

The three-engine plane ploughed into Point Lenana, the third-highest peak on Mount Kenya, an extinct volcano and Africa's highest mountain, at 6 p.m. Saturday as a cloudy sky was beginning to clear just before sunset, said Bongo Woodley of the Kenya Wildlife Service.

"I have flown over the site and seen the crash, and there do not appear to be any survivors," Woodley said by telephone from the Mount Kenya National Park headquarters in Naro Moru, 75 miles north of Nairobi.

Woodley said park rangers were preparing to trek to the crash site, located at 16,000 feet, but cloudy weather Sunday was complicating the ascent. He said police were also preparing to make the climb.

Woodley said he understood that according to a flight plan filed at Nairobi's Wilson Airport, there were 14 people on the plane and most were American tourists. No further details were immediately available.

Henry Ochieng, head of Air Navigation Services for Kenya's Civil Aviation Authority, did not have firm details about the crash or passengers.

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