Storm link to crash flight probed

Crash investigators concentrated tonight on the possibility that a Kenya Airways jetliner lost power in both engines during a storm and tried to glide back before plunging nose first into a Cameroon swamp 12 miles from the airport.

All 114 people on board – including five Britons – were killed in the crash early on Saturday, officials said.

The Nairobi-bound Boeing 737-800 sent a distress signal a shortly after take-off in Saturday from Douala, delayed an hour by storms, and then lost contact 11 to 13 minutes later. It took more than 40 hours to locate the wreck.

Officials want to know if the storms caused the plane to lose power in both engines and if a power failure caused the aircraft’s own radar to fail.

One of the many unanswered questions is why the plane stopped emitting signals after an initial distress call. The plane is equipped with an automatic device that should have kept up emissions for another two days.

An exhausted battery could be one reason, said Captain Paul Mwangi, head of operations for Kenya Airways. He also said yesterday the device could have been destroyed upon impact.

Kenya Airways is considered one of Africa’s safest airlines. The Douala-Nairobi flight runs several times a week, and commonly is used as an intermediary flight to Europe and the Middle East. Many passengers had been booked to transfer in Nairobi.

The plane was only six months old, said Titus Naikuni, chief executive of Kenya Airways.

The last crash of an international Kenya Airways flight was on Jan. 30, 2000, when Flight 431 was taking off from Abidjan, Ivory Coast, on its way to Nairobi. Investigators blamed a faulty alarm and pilot error for that crash, which killed 169 people.