Originally published by the Voice of America (www.voanews.com).
Voice of America is funded by the US Federal Government and content it
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May 5, 2007

Kenya Airways Jet Crashes in Cameroon
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http://enews.voanews.com/t?ctl=1759987:A6F02AD83191E160834E2EBBCF959AEB9574F7DCC14957C0 Kenya Airways CEO
Titus Naikuni says Boeing 737-800 jetliner bound for Nairobi with 114
people on board, lost touch with control tower in Doula immediately
after take off

Authorities in Cameroon have begun a search for a Kenya Airways
jetliner that crashed with 114 people aboard in the southern part of
the country. The plane took off from Cameroon's commercial center of
Douala early Saturday and was bound for the Kenyan capital, Nairobi.
There is no word yet on casualties. Katy Migiro has more for VOA from
Nairobi, where Kenya Airways has set up a crisis center.









Kenya Airways CEO Titus Naikuni gives a press conference in Nairobi,
05 May 2007 Kenya Airways chief executive Titus Naikuni says the
aircraft lost touch with the control tower in Doula immediately after
take off.

Naikuni says Cameroonian authorities picked up an automatic distress
signal from the plane and they have sent helicopters to the area the
signal came from.

"The latest information that we have is that a distress signal was
picked up on the west coast of Africa and a search and rescue mission,
initiated by the Cameroonian authorities, was initiated at 1105 this
morning, that is Nairobi time," he said. "So far no report has yet
been received from this mission."

The distress signal came from an area about 35 nautical miles south
west of Doula.







Relatives wait after hearing news of missing Kenya Airways plane at
Jomo Kenyatta airport in Nairobi, Kenya, 05 May 2007 Naikuni says
there were 105 passengers and nine crew members on board the plane. He
says most of the passengers were African, but there were also
Europeans, Asians and one American on the flight.

Government spokesperson Alfred Mutua described the situation as
tragic.

"The government has co-ordinated a team of officials and experts led
by the Honorable Minister of Transport Chirau Ali Mwakwere to travel
to Cameroon and link up with authorities there so as to establish what
is happening and also lead the operation," he said. "The government
will do everything to unearth the cause of this accident in order to
prevent it from occurring again."

In 2000, 169 people died when a Kenya Airways Airbus crashed into the
sea shortly after take off from Abidjan, in Ivory Coast.

The missing plane was only six months old.


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