Kenya Airways plane crash in Cameroon

babolat-blast · Post by **babolat-blast** » 05 May 2007, 08:36

Just heard on the news a very short item that contact was lost with a plane, probably from Kenia Airways, shortly after departure. They didn't have more information up to know. I can't even find any info on that elsewhere. Does someone else know more? Hopefully it's just a communication problem...

blackhawk · Post by **blackhawk** » 05 May 2007, 08:58

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/6627485.stm

Kenya Airways says it has lost contact with a Boeing 737-800 airliner flying to Nairobi from Douala in Cameroon with 115 people on board.

Avro · Post by **Avro** » 05 May 2007, 10:45

The aircraft has apparently been lost in Niete in southern Cameroon.

Hopefully there will be survivors... RIP to all who died on this accident

Chris

FLY4HOURS.BE · Post by **FLY4HOURS.BE** » 06 May 2007, 13:08

Reuters said the aircraft has just been found.

blackhawk · Post by **blackhawk** » 06 May 2007, 13:19

FLY4HOURS.BE wrote:Reuters said the aircraft has just been found.

http://www.reuters.com/article/newsOne/ ... 6620070506

Post by **ElcoB** » 06 May 2007, 15:28

Cameroon's state radio interrupted broadcasts to report the plane had been found near Mvengue, southwest of the capital Yaounde, only to say later it could not confirm the report.
...
A joint French-Cameroonian military team was due to join the search, and officials from plane manufacturer Boeing and the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board were due in Cameroon to help investigations, the airline said.

The United States was providing satellite imagery to help in the search, and Kenyan government spokesman Alfred Mutua said other governments would pitch in.

SEARCH BEEFED UP

LX-LGX · Post by **LX-LGX** » 06 May 2007, 15:56

The South African news site news24.com has published the names of passengers and crew:

http://www.news24.com/News24/Africa/New ... 02,00.html

Jense · Post by **Jense** » 06 May 2007, 16:30

According to the press, the airplane was around 6 months old. So I think we know the "victim" of this very sad crash: 5Y-KYA.
Probably one of the fastest crashes ever made by such a new plane?

Atlantis · Post by **Atlantis** » 06 May 2007, 18:47

Jense wrote:According to the press, the airplane was around 6 months old. So I think we know the "victim" of this very sad crash: 5Y-KYA.
Probably one of the fastest crashes ever made by such a new plane?

Absolutely not. The crash of the Gol plane last year, remember.

Gol received the B737-800 on 12 September and had 200 flight hours before he crashed early October.

Jense · Post by **Jense** » 06 May 2007, 20:09

Atlantis wrote:Absolutely not. The crash of the Gol plane last year, remember.

Gol received the B737-800 on 12 September and had 200 flight hours before he crashed early October.

Indeed, forgot that one.

I'm curious to see what caused the crash in this case though!

Post by **ElcoB** » 06 May 2007, 20:41

A Kenya Airways plane that went missing on Saturday with 114 passengers and crew on board was found on Sunday in swamps southeast of Cameroon's Douala airport, the central African country's state radio said.

Kenya Airways plane found

LX-LGX · Post by **LX-LGX** » 06 May 2007, 22:09

ElcoB wrote:
A Kenya Airways plane that went missing on Saturday with 114 passengers and crew on board was found on Sunday in swamps southeast of Cameroon's Douala airport, the central African country's state radio said.
Kenya Airways plane found

Reuters mentions Mvengue, and Het Laatste Nieuws mentions Dizangué. This place is known by Google Earth.

Post by **ElcoB** » 06 May 2007, 22:32

The Boeing 737-800, which was carrying passengers from more than 20 countries, vanished on Saturday shortly after taking off from Douala for Nairobi in torrential rain.

The wreckage was found 20 km (12 miles) southeast of the airport along the plane's flight path, Kenya Airways said.

"All I can say for now is that the wreckage of the plane has been located in the small village of Mbanga Pongo, in the Douala III subdivision

no word of survivors

FLY4HOURS.BE · Post by **FLY4HOURS.BE** » 07 May 2007, 00:10

I want to keep hope: No smoke was reported (which would have made the plane easier to find), which means there was no major fire although tanks were quite full, I suppose (just after take-off), which rises chances of some survivals although they still might be trapped inside the wreckage unable to move...

sama91 · Post by **sama91** » 07 May 2007, 08:53

well this means there should be surviors

LX-LGX · Post by **LX-LGX** » 07 May 2007, 09:04

sama91 wrote:well this means there should be survivors

Let's face it: the crew was unable to send a distress warning, so it probably was not an emergency landing or even not a crashlanding.

The G-forces the body must resist during a normal crash (sorry for this word) are impossible to survive.

regi · Post by **regi** » 07 May 2007, 11:12

this could be a rocket attack!

FLY4HOURS.BE · Post by **FLY4HOURS.BE** » 07 May 2007, 16:06

The G-forces the body must resist during a normal crash (sorry for this word) are impossible to survive

If position is maintained on the seat, a straight forward deceleration on the horizontal axis of -40G can be supported by the human body during a very short period.

For the vertical axis, that would become -25G.

If a plane crashes in a direct line (nose-tail) at the speed of 700km/h into the ground (or let's suppose a mountain), and that the impact generated lasts 1 second(thinking about the elasticity of the craft and the ground), the G's generated are (700/3.6/)1)/9.81=19.82G.
We're still far below the 45G's...
Even in an impact lasting 0.5 seconds that would make it less than 40G's

But most people die because of the explosion of the kerosene tanks and the fire resulted. The best example was the Helios crash: people survived the crash but the explosion and fire that followed killed them all...

Spotter 22 · Post by **Spotter 22** » 07 May 2007, 17:01

odd accident, hope they find the cause soon

LX-LGX · Post by **LX-LGX** » 07 May 2007, 18:03

FLY4HOURS.BE wrote:
The G-forces the body must resist during a normal crash (sorry for this word) are impossible to survive
...most people die because of the explosion of the kerosene tanks and the fire resulted. The best example was the Helios crash: people survived the crash but the explosion and fire that followed killed them all...

The Helios 733 had run out of fuel. Also, I would call that incident rather a crashlanding then a crash: the plane was descending and then has hit a hill near Athens.