Douala plane crash report out this week
The truth about the 2007 Kenya Airways plane crash in Cameroon in which all 114 passengers and crew perished is likely to be known this week.
The technical team that investigated the crash has completed its work and is set to release its report, Cameroon’s Minister of Transport, Mr Bello Bouba Maigari, said.
A Kenya Airways Boeing 737-800 plunged into a swamp shortly after take-off from Doula International Airport. It was the airline’s second disaster in seven years.
Mr Maigari was quoted in The Post of Cameroon on Wednesday last week as saying that the publication of the report would be delayed for seven days on the request of Kenya Airways. The minister seems not to have explained why Kenya Airways requested the delay.
Delay request
But on Sunday, the Kenya Airways managing director, Mr Titus Naikuni, denied that the airline had asked for the delay and expressed surprise at the developments. “We have not spoken to anybody about the report nor do we have authority to do so.”
On Friday, the Director of Air Accidents in the Ministry of Transport, Mr Peter Wakaiha, confirmed that they had received the report from the Cameroonian investigators. However, Mr Wakaiha said it was up to the Cameroonians to make the report public “since it’s their report.”
Cameroon Civil Aviation Authority (CCAA) said its investigation included assistance from specialists in Washington and Pensacola regarding the effects of spatial disorientation. Spatial disorientation is a condition in which an aircraft pilot’s perception of direction does not agree with reality.
According to aviation experts, between five and ten per cent of all general air accidents can be attributed to spatial disorientation. Flight KQ 507 crashed on May 4, 2007. The plane started its journey in Abidjan, Ivory Coast, and made a stopover at Douala, enroute to Nairobi.
Of the 114 people who died, nine were members of the plane’s crew and 105 passengers. Mr Maigari was the head of the Technical Commission, that carried out investigations into the accident. The two black boxes — one that records the flight data, and the cockpit recorder, which records conversations between the chief pilot and his assistant or the control tower — were found on May 7 and June 9 respectively.
They were reportedly sent to an aeronautic laboratory in Canada, to decode the information. Mr Maigari said that the Technical Commission, at the end of their findings, made its report and sent copies to all the stakeholders. The observations were included in the report to be published.
The minister said the report did not contain any aspect of culpability regarding the cause of the plane crash. He argued that it was not the Commission’s mission to do that. Instead, he said the Commission had made recommendations on how the recurrence of such an unfortunate incident can be avoided.
An aviation analyst in Nairobi said a total of 37 findings are expected in the report, 35 of which will have “direct relevance” to Kenya Airways.