"No chance of survivors" from Kenya plane

Mon May 7, 2007 8:59am BST
 
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YAOUNDE (Reuters) - A Kenya Airways plane that crashed after takeoff in Cameroon on Saturday with 114 people on board is largely submerged in swamp and there is no chance of survivors, Cameroon's civil protection service said on Monday.

"There are no chances that there will be any survivors because almost the entire body of the plane was buried inside the swamp," Jean-Pierre Nana, director of Cameroon's civil protection department and a member of a crisis working group set up by the prime minister, told Reuters.

The Boeing 737-800 vanished early on Saturday shortly after leaving Douala for Nairobi in torrential rain. The aircraft was found late on Sunday not far from Douala airport after nearly two days of fruitless searches more than 100 km (60 miles) further south.

In a morning news bulletin, Cameroon's state radio said "All the people on board the plane perished as there was no sign of survivors".

The radio said the plane had been discovered 20 km (13 km) southeast of Douala by a hunter, who alerted local authorities.

 
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