Status: Preliminary
Date: 05 MAY 2007
Type: Boeing 737-800
Operator: Kenya Airways
Registration: 5Y-KYA ?
C/n / msn: 35069/2079
First flight: 2006
Crew: Fatalities: 9 / Occupants: 9
Passengers: Fatalities: 105 / Occupants: 105
Total: Fatalities: 114 / Occupants: 114
Airplane damage: Written off
Location: South of Douala (Cameroon)
Phase: En route
Nature: International Scheduled Passenger
Departure airport: Douala Airport (DLA/FKKD), Cameroon
Destination airport: Nairobi-Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (NBO/HKNA), Kenya
Flightnumber: KQ507
Kenya Airways flight 507 is a scheduled flight from Abidjan Airport (ABJ), Ivory Coast to Nairobi (NBO) via Douala (DLA), Cameroon. The plane departed Douala at 00:05 and was to arrive in Nairobi at 06:15. Contact with the plane was lost.
The wreckage has not yet been found and the presumed accident location was unclear for some time. Search efforts now focus on the area around Lolodorf where locals reported hearing an explosion. A second site being searched is a mangrove swamp area, where fishermen were reported to have heard a loud bang. This area is 10 minutes away from Douala.
The plane’s identity was rumored to be 5Y-KYA, the first of Kenya Airways’ three brand new Boeing 737-800 planes. This has not been confirmed however.
The weather over two hours after the accident happened (ca 23:20 Z on May 4) was reported as:
FKKD 050200Z 00000KT 9999 TS BKN013 SCT020CB BKN120 24/24 Q1009 NOSIG= [a.o. thunderstorms with 5-7 oktas cloud at 1300ft, 3-4 oktas cloud at 2000ft with thunder clouds and 5-7 oktas cloud at 12000ft, temperature 24C, dewpoint 24C, QNH 1009hPa]
Sources:
Kenya Airways press release
Kenya Airways plane crashes in Cameroon: radio (AP, 5-5-2007)
——————————————–
AIRCRAFT PROFILE BOEING 737-800
* Last fatal Boeing 737 accident : 07 MAR 2007 Garuda Boeing 737-400, Yogyakarta, Indonesia- 21 fatalities
* Total number of Boeing 737 hull-losses: 134 (123 accidents, 4 hijackings, 7 other occurrences (sabotage, ground fire etc.)), of which 74 losses were fatal
* 13th worst Boeing 737 accident (if all 114 on board have not survived the accident)
* Second Boeing 737-800 accident
——————————————–
OPERATOR PROFILE KENYA AIRWAYS
* started operations: 1977
* web: http://www.kenya-airways.com/
* 4th hull-loss accident
——————————————–
COUNTRY PROFILE CAMEROON (country of accident)
* Last fatal civil hull-loss accident: 03 DEC 1995 Boeing 737-2K9 Cameroon Airlines, Douala / 71 fatalities
* Second worst accident (if all 114 on board have not survived the accident)
* The country is not yet rated in FAA’s International Aviation Safety Assessment Program (IASA)
——————————————–
COUNTRY PROFILE KENYA (country of opertor)
* Last fatal civil hull-loss accident involving a Kenyan airliner: 18 AUG 2004 Cessna 208 Transworld Safaris, near Goma, DR Congo / 3 fatalities
* Second worst accident (if all 114 on board have not survived the accident)
* The country is not yet rated in FAA’s International Aviation Safety Assessment Program (IASA)
Report provided by Aviation Safety Network
would like to have news and comments about of kenya airways.
Me too. But unfortunately there is still no news about the reason for this accident.
The flight data recorder was recovered, and Kenya requested that the “black box” be analyzed in Canada, not the US or Europe because of the ongoing “conflict” between Boeing and Airbus in the global airliner marketplace. The analysis did take place in Canada and was completed on May 30, though the results of the analysis were not disclosed because only Cameroon may release such data per the Convention on International Civil Aviation.
The cockpit voice recorder took much longer to locate, as it was buried in 15 meters of mud. But it was located on 16 June 2007 and prepared for transport to Canada for examination as the FDR had been.