By Standard Reporter
Saturday, May 05, 2007
Kenya Airways flight KQ 507 is still missing fourteen hours after it went off the radar, the airline Chief Executive Mr Titus Naikuni has said.
Naikuni said a search and rescue mission about 100 kilometres south west of Yaounde had not yet located the aircraft. Kenya Airways country manager in Cameroon is in the search team.
Addressing a press briefing in Nairobi, he said a low-flying search plane had not located the aircraft. Another press briefing is scheduled for 7 pm (1600GMT).
Cameroonian authorities had picked up an automatic distress signal from the area, where the passenger jet carrying 114 people to Nairobi went missing.
Naikuni declined to confirm a Cameroon state radio report that the Boeing 737-800 had crashed, saying: “You can’t come to that conclusion until you have seen the aircraft”.
He also said they had identified the nationalities of three passengers. One is Cameroonian and two from Equitorial Guinea. This brings the number of Cameroonians on the flight to 35.
Three passengers are still unidentified. 114 people from 25 different countries were on board the plane. The missing plane is 6 months old and was fully maintained and serviced.
“Maintenance of the plane is up to date but we will leave that verification to be determined by the Kenya Civil Aviation Authority,” Naikuni had earlier said.
Families of the 9 KQ crew members who were on the missing plane have already been informed and Kenya Airways has promised to fly them out to the crash site once concrete details on their status has been determined.
A delegation led by Transport Minister Chirau Ali Mwakwere will leave for Douala Cameroon later today to assess the status of the missing passengers and plane.
The team, which includes crash investigators from Kenya Civil Aviation Authority, will fly to assist the Cameroon government in the rescue efforts.