| Kenya Airways jet crashes in Cameroon |
A Kenya Airways flight that went missing shortly after takeoff from this west African nation's commercial capital crashed with more than 100 people on board Saturday, a government official confirmed.
Alex Bayeck, a regional communications officer, said the Nairobi-bound jet went down near the town of Lolodorf, about 155 miles south of the coastal city of Douala, where it had taken off shortly after midnight.
Relatives waiting at Nairobi's airport began wailing as reports of the crash filtered in. Dozens of family members cried and collapsed in the airport terminal. At a crisis center Kenya Airways set up at a downtown Nairobi hotel, a woman was screaming in the lobby before being led into an elevator, trailed by photographers.
Military helicopters in Cameroon were being dispatched from the Douala airport to the crash area, an airport worker said. The first group of helicopters left early in the morning.
Kenya Airways said earlier it had lost contact with the jet shortly after it left Douala for Nairobi for a 6 hour flight. "The last message was received in Douala after takeoff and thereafter the tower was unable to contact the plane," Naikuni said.
Kenyan airline officials said the Boeing 737-800 was carrying 114 people, including 105 passengers, from 23 countries.
The plane departed Douala at 12:05 a.m. and was to arrive in Nairobi at 6:15 a.m. It originated in the Ivory Coast, but stopped in Cameroon to pick up more passengers, the airline said.
The last crash of an international Kenya Airways flight was on Jan. 30, 2000, when Flight 431 was taking off from Abidjian, Ivory Coast, on its way to Nairobi. Investigators blamed a faulty alarm and pilot error for that crash, which killed 169 people.
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