Kenya pilot took off despite storm warning

Yaounde: The pilot of a Kenya Airways plane that crashed in Cameroon this month decided to take off in stormy weather while other flights waited for conditions to improve, Cameroon's civil aviation chief said on Tuesday.
Cameroon has launched an investigation into the crash of the six-month-old Boeing 737-800, which plunged into swampy jungle not far from Douala airport shortly after taking off around midnight on May 4-5. All 114 people on board were killed.
Relatives of the victims have criticised Cameroonian authorities over their handling of the accident. Search parties took nearly two days to locate the plane wreckage, which was found less than six kilometres from the end of the runway.
The head of Cameroon's Civil Aviation Authority, Ignatius Sama Juma, said the Douala control tower had advised the captain of Kenya Airways Flight 507 of the stormy weather conditions.
"Certainly, there was a storm problem," Sama Juma told Radio France Internationale, adding that only the official inquiry would determine whether the crash was caused by a technical fault or human error.
Sama Juma said the captains of two other planes also due to leave Douala the same night both decided to wait for weather conditions to improve. They left safely.
The dead passengers came from 27 nations, mostly African, but with others from China, India, Europe and elsewhere.
16/05/07 Tansa Musa/Independent Online, South Africa

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Categories: Foreign May 2007, Safety May 2007