Kenyan Jet With Over 100 Aboard Crashes

A Kenya Airways flight with more than 100 people aboard crashed in southern Cameroon, officials said Saturday.

 
The plane lost contact with airport controllers soon after taking off around midnight Friday, and crashed near the southern coastal town of Niete, state radio said. But later information suggested the crash was further inland, close to the town of Lolodorf, a government spokesman said.

 
Alex Bayeck, a regional communications officer, said he did not have any information on whether there were survivors. He spoke by telephone from a vehicle en route to the crash site.

 
The plane took off from Cameroon's commercial center of Douala en route to the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, Kenya Airways said earlier Saturday. Lolodorf is about 250 kilometers (155 miles) southeast of Douala.

 
Cameroon's military dispatched helicopters from the Douala airport to the crash site, an airport worker said, speaking anonymously because she was not authorized to talk to the press. The first group of helicopters left early in the morning, she said. Military officials could not immediately be reached for comment.

 
"The last message was received in Douala after takeoff and thereafter the tower was unable to contact the plane," Kenya Airways CEO Titus Naikuni said in the Kenyan capital.

 
At a news conference soon after the Cameroon radio report, Naikuni said he could not immediately confirm the plane had crashed.

 
Kenyan airline officials said the Boeing 737-800 was carrying 114 people, including 105 passengers, from 23 countries. Naikuni said the plane was six months old.