Kenya Airways Jet With 114 Aboard Missing in Africa

[Jacaylbaro]

 

 

Kenya Airways, Africa's second-largest carrier, said a passenger plane with 114 people on board went missing today after taking off from Douala, Cameroon, on a flight to the Kenyan capital, Nairobi.

 

Cameroon's civil aviation authority picked up a distress signal from the Boeing 737-800 aircraft off the country's west coast and sent a rescue team at 11:05 a.m. Cameroon time, Kenya Airways Managing Director Titus Naikuni said today in Nairobi.

 

The search effort is focused around 100 kilometers (62 miles) south-west of Yaounde, the Cameroon capital, Naikuni told reporters.

 

Kenya's government has asked the U.S. to supply it with satellite equipment to help find the aircraft, Transport Minister Chirau Ali Mwakwere told reporters at the press conference.

 

The airplane was traveling from Abidjan, Ivory Coast, with a stopover in Cameroon and had been due to arrive in Nairobi at 6:15 a.m. local time. The passengers include 34 Cameroonians, 15 Indians, 7 South Africans, 6 Chinese, 6 Nigerians, 5 British and one U.S. national, Naikuni said.

 

Naikuni couldn't confirm an Agence France-Presse report that the plane had crashed and been located. The report cited an unidentified government official for the information. Only national civil aviation authorities can release such information, he said.

 

CNN cited a Cameroon radio station as saying the plane crashed near the town of Niete, in the south of the country.

 

The aircraft is six months old, Naikuni said. He didn't release the credentials of the pilot. Earlier, the airline had said in a statement that there were 115 passengers on board.

 

Enquiries about flight KQ 507 can be directed to an international passenger information center at +27-11-207-1100, Kenya Airways said.

 

The airline flies to 30 destinations in Africa and 25 cities worldwide.

 

To contact the reporter on this story: Carli Lourens in Johannesburg at clourens@bloomberg.net , with Eric Ombok in Nairobi.

 

 

 

Source Bloomberg