KENYA: French army team joins in search for missing Kenya Airways plane which crashed in the Cameroon

The search resumes for missing Kenya Airways jet with help from the international community. The French government and aircraft manufacturer Boeing have sent people to Cameroon to help the teams of rescuers and villagers who have been combing thick tropical forest on Sunday (May 06) for the wreckage of a Kenya Airways passenger plane which crashed after takeoff in the central African country. The Boeing 737-800 aircraft, which was carrying 114 people from more than 20 countries, went missing on Saturday (May 5) after leaving Douala airport bound for Nairobi in torrential rain. It was reported to have come down in thick jungle. Military helicopters backed up by villagers on motorbikes fruitlessly searched a swathe of the forest-covered terrain, centered roughly 100 km (62 miles) southwest of the capital Yaounde on Saturday before heavy rain forced the hunt to be called off for the night. Kenya Airways Group Managing Director Titus Naikuni told a press conference in Nairobi on Sunday (May 06) the search was resuming with two extra helicopters. A Kenyan search team led by Transport Minister Chirau Ali Mwakwere to help the Cameroonian authorities arrived in the west African country late on Saturday. Radar-equipped helicopters, including one sent by the French military from a base in Gabon, were focusing on an area between three or four towns. "This morning a combined French army and Cameroonian search team is also preparing to out to the site area," Naikuni said. The aircraft, which was only six months old, was carrying 105 passengers and nine crew, the bulk of them African with others from China, India, Europe and elsewhere. Kenya Airways said the Douala control tower had received a last message from the aircraft right after takeoff. It had been due to land in Nairobi at 6:15 a.m. (0315 GMT) on Saturday. Kenya Airways has three 737-800s in its fleet and Naikuni said they had not decided whether to ground the others.

ITN Source | May 6, 2007

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