Mbanga Pongo crash: Kenya Airways anxious to know crash cause

Airliner officials have begun urging the Kenyan and US governments to mount
pressure on Yaounde authorities to release a report on the cause of the crash

By Ntaryike Divine, Jr. in Douala

Almost a year since a Kenya Airways plane hurtled into jungle marshes at Mbanga Pongo seconds after take-off from the Douala airport, protracting information blackout on the exact cause of the crash has compelled the airliner to direct pressure on Cameroon authorities.

Kenya Airways CEO, Titus Naikuni, said earlier this week that his company was seeking the intervention of the Kenyan and US governments to oblige Yaounde authorities to release the report. All 114 passengers and crew members aboard perished when KQ flight 507
nosed-dived amidst violent nocturnal storms last 5 May.

A flurry of aviation experts from within and without Cameroon attempted hypothetical explanations on the cause of the crash in the weeks that followed. Some blamed Cameroon for her blatant lack of flight control radars that stalled a search and rescue operation for over 48 hours. Others pinned blame for the disaster on violent night storms.

At term, the wrecked craft’s black boxes were retrieved from the marshy crash site after days of a
daunting search and ferried to Canada for analyses. Cameroon authorities announced amidst sweeping grief at home and abroad that the crash cause report would be available in a year. In the interlude, Kenya Airways began paying indemnities to kin of deceased passengers, as DNA tests conducted at a Bosnian laboratory enabled the identification and restitution of corpses [mostly as body parts] to relatives.

Kenya Airways officials have said the crash significantly burdened the national carrier which has
been grappling to regain its once enviable poise in air transport in Africa. Speaking recently at the
carrier’s headquarters in Embakasi , Kenya , CEO Titus Naikuni said Kenya Airways is facing huge challenges in the aftermath of the disaster. He named shortage of aircraft following the loss of the Boeing 767-800 in the Douala crash and the ongoing unparalleled hikes in fuel prices as major sources of concern.

He however said Kenya Airways is acquiring more planes to inter alia, fill the shortfall from the Douala crash, but also noted that the delivery of new craft had been delayed by Boeing manufacturers for reasons he did not state. He even hinted that the airliner may be obliged to raise fares in two months time, in order to cater for unprecedented increase in fuel prices and
the continued weakening of the dollar that has continued to eat into its profits.