Reports from Cameroon say the wreckage of a Kenyan Airways jetliner missing for nearly two days was found Sunday in a dense mangrove forest outside Cameroon's commercial capital, Douala. Titus Naikuni, chief executive of Kenya Airways reportedly said he had no news about the plane's condition or about the 114 people who were on board.
Joe Chebongkeng is with the department of special coverage for the Cameroon National Radio and Television network. From the capital, Yaounde, he told VOA Cameroon authorities confirmed the wreckage had been found.
“The information we got from the Cameroonian government late Sunday evening is that the wreckage was spotted in the mangroves in the south of the country. That’s off the coast of Douala. But there wasn’t any precision as to the casualty or whether there was any survival in the wreckage that was spotted. But from what was said, there might not be any survivals on the plane,” he said.
Chebongkeng said the Kenya Airways was carrying passengers from a wide range of African countries, including Cameroon.
“The Kenyan authorities have been talking about something like over 20 nationalities in the plane. Of the 114 people who were on board, you are talking about something like 35 Cameroonians, something like 50 Indians. We have South Africans; we have Ivorians; we have Chadians; we have people from the Central African Republic, and Kenya of course, and so we had people from many, many nationalities,” Chebongkeng said.
He said Cameroon authorities used both civilian and the military in the search process. Chebongkeng also said the chances of any survivals were remote.
“It is difficult to say whether we might have any survival because it is already closed to 48 hours since it happened, and if there were somebody who was wounded and needed immediate medical attention, may be such a person would normally survive 48 hours after. But one can’t say exactly because may be there will be more detail information that we might have later to tell us whether there were any survivals or not,” Chebongkeng said.