Following the crash from 9.08pm, January 30 2000
A handful of survivors were found clinging to wreckage in the Atlantic after a Kenya Airways jet carrying 179 people crashed off the west African coast, January 30. The plane, an Airbus 310, took off from Abidjan, Ivory Coast, at 9:08pm same day and crashed just one minute later, according to George Dapre Yao, the head of air traffic at Abidjan's Felix Houphouet-Boigny Airport. Emergency officials - fireman, police officers, soldiers and divers - combed the beach near the crash scene late immediately after the crash to search for survivors.
At least nine people are though to have survived, including one man who swam to shore. Rescuers said 14 bodies had been brought to shore and at least 49 more were coming in by boat Monday morning, leaving over a hundred passengers and crew unaccounted for. Witnesses said the plane never appeared to get sufficient altitude as it crossed over the airport's wall and headed out over the ocean, just a few hundred yards away. "Just after takeoff the plane started having problems," said Samuel Ogbada Adje, a Nigerian survivor, wrapped in a blanket at an Abidjan port after being plucked from the water by rescuers. "It wasn't quite balanced and the next thing we knew we were in the water." Mr. Adje said he was propelled into the water by the force of the crash, and managed to swim from the wreckage. He said the rescue was a disaster. "If they had come sooner, a lot of us would have been saved. We waited two hours for people to rescue us," he said angrily before being pushed into an ambulance and driven away. The plane's final destination was Nairobi, Kenya - a popular route among Nigerians heading to Dubai for duty-free shopping. It was supposed to have landed in Lagos, Nigeria, on Sunday afternoon but was diverted to Abidjan because of bad weather.
The route is popular is Anne Yeze was worshiping at the Celestial
Christian Church, a concrete-walled, metal-roofed building just off
the beach, when the plane crashed into the water nearby. "We were
praying and we heard a noise, like something hitting the water," she
said. The parishioners rushed outside, but couldn't see the crash.
They then called the airport. An official at the airport's control
tower, speaking on condition of anonymity, said French military
firefighters, who are stationed at the military base next to the
airport, were dispatched to the scene. The control tower official
said that wreckage of the plane could not be seen, but the area where
the plane had crashed was visible from the tower. Kenya Airways and
KLM Royal Dutch Airlines, working together, have daily flights from
Amsterdam to Nairobi. Sunday's crash was the first such disaster for
Kenya Airways, which has been operating since1977. The Kenyan
government retains a significant interest in its national carrier
while KLM Royal Dutch Airlines is the largest individual shareholder
with a 26 percent stake in the company.
By News Unlimited staff and agencies/Monday January 31, 2000
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Africa
suffers the scourge of the virus. Kgomotso
Mahlangu, a five-month-old AIDS patient in a hospital in the
Kalafong township near Pretoria, South Africa, seems a
strong picture of the catastrophic and sweeping impact of
the virus in the continent. "It
is morally indefensible, it is morally unconscionable, it is
repugnant, odious, offensive and ugly that the West is
prepared to spend upwards of 40 billion dollars to fight war
in the Balkans, and then to engage in the economic
restoration of Kosovo, and less than one percent of that to
save the lives of tens of millions of children, women and
men in Africa," notes UNICEF's deputy executive director
Stephen Lewis. In this special report,
USAfricaonline.com Founder Chido Nwangwu writes a compelling
commentary titled AIDS, Africa and