Plane crash in Cameroon. 114 feared dead.

[classical_hero]

TEAMS of rescuers combed thick tropical forest in southern Cameroon today for the wreckage of a plane carrying 114 people from 20 countries.
The Kenya Airways passenger plane crashed soon after taking off in heavy rain from Douala airport in the central African country.

The Boeing 737-800 had been bound for Nairobi. It was reported to have come down in thick jungle.

Military helicopters backed up by villagers on motorbikes had searched a swathe of the forest-covered terrain southwest of the capital Yaounde yesterday.

But they failed to locate the plane, which initially set off from Ivory Coast, before darkness fell.

"The crisis committee ... has decided to set up several teams made up of villagers to continue the search throughout the night," said Placide Ndobo, a local government official in the southern region.

Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki said he had sent a high-level government team led by Transport Minister Chirau Ali Mwakwere to help the Cameroonian authorities find out what had happened to the plane.

"I wish to assure all that we have put in motion a mechanism to help establish the status of the Kenya Airways plane," Mr Kibaki said.

Violent storm

Kenya Airways Group Managing Director Titus Naikuni said yesterday the authorities in Cameroon had picked up an automatically generated distress signal from the area where the plane went missing.

He said the airliner had been delayed from taking off by one hour due to heavy rain.

Radar-equipped helicopters, including one sent by the French military from a base in neighbouring Gabon, were focusing on an area between three or four towns, a French diplomat in Cameroon said.

The aircraft, which was only six months old, was carrying 105 passengers and nine crew, including Africans, Chinese, Indians, Europeans and an American.

Kenya Airways and a source close to the Agency for the Safety of Aerial Navigation in Africa (ASECNA) said the airliner had taken off from Douala in western Cameroon at 0:07am (9.07am AEST).

Only minutes later, and as a storm raged, Flight KQ 507 disappeared from radar screens.

In his last radio message to air traffic controllers, the pilot "simply confirmed that the plane had taken off", the ASECNA source said.

It had been due to land in Nairobi at 6.15am (1.15pm AEST) yesterday.

Kenya Airways has three 737-800s in its fleet and Mr Naikuni said they had not decided whether to ground the others.

In January 2000 a Kenya Airways Airbus crashed into the sea after taking off from Abidjan airport, killing 169 passengers and crew.

Air France-KLM owns a 26 per cent stake in Kenya Airways, which prides itself on its reputation as a reliable African air company.

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This is certainly terrible news for everyone involved.

 

[nivi]

And the hundereds of car crashes deaths everyday aren't? I don't see anyone making a big deal about those.

 

[Civrules]

The media sux.
Most news are negative.
There are perhaps as many or more positive stories.
Few cover these.

Submerge yourself in positive news and thinking. Everything else (that you don't need to know about) is just a distraction because... how many people die every day by accident, murder, disease, hunger?

The coverage of VT inspired bomb/shooting threats across the country. Our school had a threat, and two other schools in the district also did. I hated to see the damned news helicopters flying over the school. We had cops search us one morning because of the threat. It was slow, even though half the school's students didn't show up.


Thanks to the media for advertising.

 

[classical_hero]

And the hundereds of car crashes deaths everyday aren't? I don't see anyone making a big deal about those.

How often do they happen in a big crash? That is why these stories make news, because lots of people died in one event, not lots of little events. Even though both are sad.

 

[Bozo Erectus]

We should all change our avatars now. Oh nevermind, this happened far away, it doesnt matter.

 

[Love]

So many lives...

 

[Tycoon101]

We should all change our avatars now. Oh nevermind, this happened far away, it doesnt matter.

Let's just change our avatars every time a troll starts mocking a disaster.

 

[Bozo Erectus]

Im just pointing out the obvious, sorry.

 

[classical_hero]

We should all change our avatars now. Oh nevermind, this happened far away, it doesnt matter.

I thought that was good what you said. Unfortunately too many have that attitude that you said. This is a shame, since all humanlife should be treated equal.

 

[Bozo Erectus]

I thought that was good what you said. Unfortunately too many have that attitude that you said. This is a shame, since all humanlife should be treated equal.

If all life was truly valued equally, we'd have troops in Darfur right now.

 

[classical_hero]

If all life was truly valued equally, we'd have troops in Darfur right now.

I agree, but we both know that this is not going to happen, especially with the aftermath of the Iraq war. Most people would prefer to be in their comfy lounges than help the less fortunate, but this really another issue, which you could easily start another thread on, but lets keep focused on the tragedy at hand.

 

[Bozo Erectus]

Ok, one tragedy at a time (focusing)

 

[Fifty]

Nobody values all human life equally nor should they be expected to.

 

[Bozo Erectus]

Nobody values all human life equally nor should they be expected to.

Those are two true statements. Disagreement is not an option.

 

[Red Door]

We should all change our avatars now. Oh nevermind, this happened far away, it doesnt matter.

There's a difference between a terrorist attack/killing spree and an accident.

 

[Love]

Well, who knows?

 

[JollyRoger]

There's a difference between a terrorist attack/killing spree and an accident.

Which is why you wouldn't have seen VT avatars if instead of the shooting at VT, 114 VT students would have died in a plane crash, right?

 

[Red Door]

Which is why you wouldn't have seen VT avatars if instead of the shooting at VT, 114 VT students would have died in a plane crash, right?

Well, no, because they're American, they'll be on the front page of the Post, the Times, etc.