NAIROBI: Kenyan officials said on Tuesday that a Kenya Airways flight that crashed in Cameroon killing 114 people had taken off only 30 seconds earlier.
The crash site, in a swamp southeast of Douala airport, was only 5.42 kilometres away from the end of the runway, Kenya Airways chief pilot Captain James Ouma told a news conference in Nairobi.
"We are talking about 30 seconds, so it had just lifted off," Ouma said.
Initial reports said the wreckage was some 20 kilometres southeast of Douala. Flight KQ 507 disappeared from radar screens after midnight Friday, shortly after taking off from Douala in bad weather. Rescue teams discovered its wreckage almost 48 hours later.
Investigators on Monday recovered the data recorder from the tail of the Boeing 737-800 but have yet to find its voice recorder, containing details of conversations between the pilot and the control tower in Douala.
Kenyan officials said Tuesday that they wanted "neutral" Canada to analyse the black boxes from the Kenya Airways wreckage. "Canada, unlike Kenya and Cameroon and also the United States where Boeing manufacturers are located, is not an interested party," said government spokesman Alfred Mutua.
"We also do feel that European nations would not be viewed as neutral due to competition between Boeing and Airbus," Mutua said.
Meanwhile, Kenya Airways Chairman Evanson Mwaniki said the remains of 29 passengers had been recovered Monday night.
Victim identification experts, together with equipment from Britain and elsewhere, were to arrive Wednesday to aid Cameroonian authorities with their work.
For the first time the company admitted on Tuesday that it was unlikely that there were any survivors.
"It appears the aircraft broke up on impact," Mwaniki said.
Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki on Tuesday expressed his condolences to the victims' families and announced a national day of mourning for May 14th. Nine Kenyan crew died in the disaster.
Kenya Airways flight 507 began its journey in the Ivory Coast city of Abidjan, and collected passengers on a stopover in Douala before heading for Nairobi.
The plane was carrying 105 passengers from 27 countries. Most had been planning to connect through Nairobi to other destinations outside Kenya.
