Kenya Airways Flight 507
Encyclopedia
Kenya Airways
Flight 507 was a scheduled Abidjan
–Douala
–Nairobi
passenger service, operated with a Boeing 737-8AL
, that crashed in the initial stage of its second leg on , immediately after takeoff from Douala International Airport
. It departed Douala at 00:05 GMT (01:05 local time) on 5 May; the flight was due to arrive in Nairobi at 03:15 GMT (06:15 local time).
Kenya Airways disclosed a passenger list indicating that the 105 passengers on board were citizens of 26 different countries, most of them from Cameroon
; nine of the occupants were Kenya
n. Seventeen passengers boarded in Abidjan, while the rest did so in Douala.
The plane broke up into small pieces and came to rest mostly submerged in a mangrove swamp, 5.4 kilometres (3.4 mi) to the south (176º) of the end of the Douala International Airport's runway
12. There were no survivors. The investigation by the Cameroon Civil Aviation Authority
determined that the pilots failed to notice and correct excessive bank following takeoff. This led to the loss of control and crash of the aircraft.
After the crash, the flight route designation was changed from KQ507 to KQ504 for flights between Douala and Nairobi with the same aircraft type.
s Kenya Airways had recently acquired from Singapore Aircraft Leasing Enterprise
. The airframe first flew on , and was delivered from Boeing later that month.
The aircrew
of the Cameroon
ian and the Moroccan
companies elected to wait for the weather to improve, while the Kenya Airways crew decided to take off, perhaps because they had already been delayed over an hour. Contact with the plane was lost soon after takeoff from Douala; it did not report in upon reaching 5000 feet (1,524 m) as was the procedure. The control tower may have received a distress signal from the aircraft before the loss of contact; later reports contradicted the statement. Kenya Airways set up a crisis management center at Jomo Kenyatta International Airport
in Nairobi.
On , Cameroon's state radio interrupted broadcasts to report that wreckage of the plane had been found near Mvengue, southwest of the capital Yaoundé
, only to say later it could not confirm the report.
Later that day Kenya Airways officials reported that the wreckage of the aircraft had been found 5.42 kilometres south (176°) of the end of the airport's runway 12, some 120 kilometres from the site mentioned in the earlier radio broadcasts. Initial reports from the crash site did not mention survivors.
Further, Kenya Airways Group Managing Director Titus Naikuni
said in Nairobi that local people had led rescuers to the crash site. "We are told the aircraft was covered by a canopy of trees, and that was the delay in sighting the crash site", he said.
Cameroon's Minister of State for Territorial Administration Hamidou Yaya Marafa told a news conference that day, "All I can say for now is that the wreckage of the plane has been located in the small village of Mbanga Pongo, in the Douala III subdivision. We are putting in place rescue measures."
On director of Civil Protection Service of Cameroon Jean-Pierre Nana claimed that "there are no chances that there will be any survivors because almost the entire body of the plane was buried inside the swamp". A day later, Kenya Airways reported that 29 bodies had been recovered from the crash site, while reports from Cameroon claimed that over 40 had been recovered. Workers reported that the bodies were "badly disfigured" and that identification would be difficult. Heavy rains in the area continued to hamper all efforts.
during heavy weather. Several clues had pointed in this direction including the time the plane had been in the air, the distress call issued by the aircraft (both later disputed), the meteorological conditions at the time of the crash, and the nose-down position of the wreckage. Experts theorized that this would be consistent with the plane losing power in both engines, attempting to glide back to the airport, and stalling
during the attempt. Other experts theorized that lightning had played a role in the crash. The National Transportation Safety Board
of the United States
sent a go-team to assist with the investigation.
On 8 May 2007 "Kenya Airways chief pilot James Ouma told a news conference in Nairobi that Kenyan investigators believe the jet crashed about 30 seconds after takeoff. Officials in Cameroon had said earlier that they lost contact with the jet 11-13 minutes into the flight."
On , DNA testing of relatives of the victims began in Douala.
The flight data recorder
was recovered, and Kenya subsequently requested that the "black box" be analyzed in Canada, not the US or Europe. The reason stated was the ongoing "conflict" between Boeing vs. Airbus in the global airliner marketplace. Kenya also stressed that Canada's bilingual nature would ease communications between it, French-speaking Cameroon, and English-speaking Kenya. The analysis did take place in Canada and was completed on May 30, though the results of the analysis were not immediately disclosed because only Cameroon may release such data per the Convention on International Civil Aviation
.
The cockpit voice recorder
took much longer to locate, as it was buried in 15 meters of mud, amidst the wreckage of the cockpit. But it was eventually located on 16 June 2007 and prepared for transport to Canada for examination as the FDR had been.
On , an article appeared in the Business Daily Africa which said that the pilots had been exonerated from blame in the crash. The article did not state who had exonerated them or why. The article also said that examination of the DFDR had shown no mechanical failures on the plane, implied that weather was the sole reason for the crash, and that the CVR
had not yet been recovered, despite widespread reporting 13 days earlier that it had been.
On , one year after the crash, Rabier Anani Bindji a reporter from Canal 2 International (a Cameroonian television broadcaster) visited the site and showed images of human remains, personal effects and large sections of the plane (including one of the engines) remaining at the site.
, Kenya Airways said it has yet to be provided any report about cause of the crash by investigators.
The Cameroon Civil Aviation Authority (CCAA) released its final report of the crash on 28 April 2010. The investigation found that the aircraft departed without receiving clearance from Air Traffic Control. The captain, who was the flying pilot, corrected right bank several times after take-off. After 42 seconds of flight, the captain gave a command indicating that he activated the autopilot. However the autopilot did not actually engage, nor was the command acknowledged by the copilot. The pilots did not notice that the aircraft was increasingly banking to the right from 11° when the captain indicated that he had set the autopilot to 34° when a bank angle warning sounded 40 seconds later. The captain then activated the autopilot, but his inputs on the controls lead to a further increase in the bank angle. The aircraft pitched nose-down after it reached a height of 2900 feet with 115° right bank. The two pilots used opposite and conflicting control inputs to attempt to recover the aircraft. The aircraft crashed at 287 knots at 48° down pitch and 60° right bank 1:42 after take off.
The CCAA determined the probable causes of the crash to be "loss of control of the aircraft as a result of spatial disorientation... after a long slow roll, during which no instrument scanning was done, and in the absence of external visual references in a dark night. Inadequate operational control, lack of crew coordination, coupled with the non-adherence to procedures of flight monitoring, confusion in the utilization of the [autopilot], have also contributed to cause this situation."
Kenya Airways
Kenya Airways Ltd., more commonly known as Kenya Airways, is the flag carrier and largest airline of Kenya. The company was founded in 1977, after the dissolution of East African Airways. The carrier's head office is located in Embakasi, Nairobi, with its main base at Jomo Kenyatta International...
Flight 507 was a scheduled Abidjan
Abidjan
Abidjan is the economic and former official capital of Côte d'Ivoire, while the current capital is Yamoussoukro. it was the largest city in the nation and the third-largest French-speaking city in the world, after Paris, and Kinshasa but before Montreal...
–Douala
Douala
Douala is the largest city in Cameroon and the capital of Cameroon's Littoral Province. Home to Cameroon's largest port and its major international airport, Douala International Airport, it is the commercial capital of the country...
–Nairobi
Nairobi
Nairobi is the capital and largest city of Kenya. The city and its surrounding area also forms the Nairobi County. The name "Nairobi" comes from the Maasai phrase Enkare Nyirobi, which translates to "the place of cool waters". However, it is popularly known as the "Green City in the Sun" and is...
passenger service, operated with a Boeing 737-8AL
Boeing 737 Next Generation
The Boeing 737 Next Generation, commonly abbreviated as Boeing 737NG, is the name given to the -600/-700/-800/-900 series of the Boeing 737 after the introduction of the -300/-400/-500 Classic series. They are short- to medium-range, narrow-body jet airliners...
, that crashed in the initial stage of its second leg on , immediately after takeoff from Douala International Airport
Douala International Airport
Douala International Airport is an international airport located 6 miles from Douala, the largest city in Cameroon and the capital of Cameroon's Littoral Province...
. It departed Douala at 00:05 GMT (01:05 local time) on 5 May; the flight was due to arrive in Nairobi at 03:15 GMT (06:15 local time).
Kenya Airways disclosed a passenger list indicating that the 105 passengers on board were citizens of 26 different countries, most of them from Cameroon
Cameroon
Cameroon, officially the Republic of Cameroon , is a country in west Central Africa. It is bordered by Nigeria to the west; Chad to the northeast; the Central African Republic to the east; and Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, and the Republic of the Congo to the south. Cameroon's coastline lies on the...
; nine of the occupants were Kenya
Kenya
Kenya , officially known as the Republic of Kenya, is a country in East Africa that lies on the equator, with the Indian Ocean to its south-east...
n. Seventeen passengers boarded in Abidjan, while the rest did so in Douala.
The plane broke up into small pieces and came to rest mostly submerged in a mangrove swamp, 5.4 kilometres (3.4 mi) to the south (176º) of the end of the Douala International Airport's runway
Runway
According to ICAO a runway is a "defined rectangular area on a land aerodrome prepared for the landing and take-off of aircraft." Runways may be a man-made surface or a natural surface .- Orientation and dimensions :Runways are named by a number between 01 and 36, which is generally one tenth...
12. There were no survivors. The investigation by the Cameroon Civil Aviation Authority
Cameroon Civil Aviation Authority
The Cameroon Civil Aviation Authority is the civil aviation authority of Cameroon, with its head office in Yaoundé. It is also responsible for aviation accident investigation.-External links:*...
determined that the pilots failed to notice and correct excessive bank following takeoff. This led to the loss of control and crash of the aircraft.
After the crash, the flight route designation was changed from KQ507 to KQ504 for flights between Douala and Nairobi with the same aircraft type.
Crash
Flight 507 was one of three services scheduled to depart from Douala Airport around midnight that day, It was due to be flown using one of three Boeing 737-800Boeing 737 Next Generation
The Boeing 737 Next Generation, commonly abbreviated as Boeing 737NG, is the name given to the -600/-700/-800/-900 series of the Boeing 737 after the introduction of the -300/-400/-500 Classic series. They are short- to medium-range, narrow-body jet airliners...
s Kenya Airways had recently acquired from Singapore Aircraft Leasing Enterprise
Singapore Aircraft Leasing Enterprise
BOC Aviation, formerly named Singapore Aircraft Leasing Enterprise , is a company engaged in Commercial Aircraft Sales and Leasing, with headquarters in Singapore and offices in the UK and the United States. Owned by the Bank of China, the company provides operating lease and fleet financing...
. The airframe first flew on , and was delivered from Boeing later that month.
The aircrew
Aircrew
Aircrew are the personnel who operate an aircraft while in flight. The composition of the crew depends on the type of aircraft as well as the purpose of the flight.-Civilian:*Aviator** Pilot-in-command** First officer** Second officer** Third officer...
of the Cameroon
Cameroon
Cameroon, officially the Republic of Cameroon , is a country in west Central Africa. It is bordered by Nigeria to the west; Chad to the northeast; the Central African Republic to the east; and Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, and the Republic of the Congo to the south. Cameroon's coastline lies on the...
ian and the Moroccan
Morocco
Morocco , officially the Kingdom of Morocco , is a country located in North Africa. It has a population of more than 32 million and an area of 710,850 km², and also primarily administers the disputed region of the Western Sahara...
companies elected to wait for the weather to improve, while the Kenya Airways crew decided to take off, perhaps because they had already been delayed over an hour. Contact with the plane was lost soon after takeoff from Douala; it did not report in upon reaching 5000 feet (1,524 m) as was the procedure. The control tower may have received a distress signal from the aircraft before the loss of contact; later reports contradicted the statement. Kenya Airways set up a crisis management center at Jomo Kenyatta International Airport
Jomo Kenyatta International Airport
-Charter airlines:-Cargo airlines:-Other facilities:The Kenya Civil Aviation Authority has its head office in the KAA Complex on the airport property. African Express Airways has its head office on the airport property...
in Nairobi.
On , Cameroon's state radio interrupted broadcasts to report that wreckage of the plane had been found near Mvengue, southwest of the capital Yaoundé
Yaoundé
-Transportation:Yaoundé Nsimalen International Airport is a major civilian hub, while nearby Yaoundé Airport is used by the military. Railway lines run west to the port city of Douala and north to N'Gaoundéré. Many bus companies operate from the city; particularly in the Nsam and Mvan neighborhoods...
, only to say later it could not confirm the report.
Later that day Kenya Airways officials reported that the wreckage of the aircraft had been found 5.42 kilometres south (176°) of the end of the airport's runway 12, some 120 kilometres from the site mentioned in the earlier radio broadcasts. Initial reports from the crash site did not mention survivors.
Further, Kenya Airways Group Managing Director Titus Naikuni
Titus Naikuni
Titus Naikuni is Kenya Airways Group Managing Director & Chief Executive. Titus holds a Bachelor of Science Honours Degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Nairobi...
said in Nairobi that local people had led rescuers to the crash site. "We are told the aircraft was covered by a canopy of trees, and that was the delay in sighting the crash site", he said.
Cameroon's Minister of State for Territorial Administration Hamidou Yaya Marafa told a news conference that day, "All I can say for now is that the wreckage of the plane has been located in the small village of Mbanga Pongo, in the Douala III subdivision. We are putting in place rescue measures."
On director of Civil Protection Service of Cameroon Jean-Pierre Nana claimed that "there are no chances that there will be any survivors because almost the entire body of the plane was buried inside the swamp". A day later, Kenya Airways reported that 29 bodies had been recovered from the crash site, while reports from Cameroon claimed that over 40 had been recovered. Workers reported that the bodies were "badly disfigured" and that identification would be difficult. Heavy rains in the area continued to hamper all efforts.
Investigation
Early attention as to the cause of the crash had centered on the possibility of dual engine flameoutFlameout
A flameout refers to the failure of a jet engine caused by the extinction of the flame in the combustion chamber. It can be caused by a number of factors, including fuel exhaustion; compressor stall; insufficient oxygen supply; foreign object damage ; severe inclement weather; and mechanical...
during heavy weather. Several clues had pointed in this direction including the time the plane had been in the air, the distress call issued by the aircraft (both later disputed), the meteorological conditions at the time of the crash, and the nose-down position of the wreckage. Experts theorized that this would be consistent with the plane losing power in both engines, attempting to glide back to the airport, and stalling
Stall (flight)
In fluid dynamics, a stall is a reduction in the lift coefficient generated by a foil as angle of attack increases. This occurs when the critical angle of attack of the foil is exceeded...
during the attempt. Other experts theorized that lightning had played a role in the crash. The National Transportation Safety Board
National Transportation Safety Board
The National Transportation Safety Board is an independent U.S. government investigative agency responsible for civil transportation accident investigation. In this role, the NTSB investigates and reports on aviation accidents and incidents, certain types of highway crashes, ship and marine...
of the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
sent a go-team to assist with the investigation.
On 8 May 2007 "Kenya Airways chief pilot James Ouma told a news conference in Nairobi that Kenyan investigators believe the jet crashed about 30 seconds after takeoff. Officials in Cameroon had said earlier that they lost contact with the jet 11-13 minutes into the flight."
On , DNA testing of relatives of the victims began in Douala.
The flight data recorder
Flight data recorder
A flight data recorder is an electronic device employed to record any instructions sent to any electronic systems on an aircraft. It is a device used to record specific aircraft performance parameters...
was recovered, and Kenya subsequently requested that the "black box" be analyzed in Canada, not the US or Europe. The reason stated was the ongoing "conflict" between Boeing vs. Airbus in the global airliner marketplace. Kenya also stressed that Canada's bilingual nature would ease communications between it, French-speaking Cameroon, and English-speaking Kenya. The analysis did take place in Canada and was completed on May 30, though the results of the analysis were not immediately disclosed because only Cameroon may release such data per the Convention on International Civil Aviation
Convention on International Civil Aviation
The Convention on International Civil Aviation, also known as the Chicago Convention, established the International Civil Aviation Organization , a specialized agency of the United Nations charged with coordinating and regulating international air travel...
.
The cockpit voice recorder
Cockpit voice recorder
A cockpit voice recorder , often referred to as a "black box", is a flight recorder used to record the audio environment in the flight deck of an aircraft for the purpose of investigation of accidents and incidents...
took much longer to locate, as it was buried in 15 meters of mud, amidst the wreckage of the cockpit. But it was eventually located on 16 June 2007 and prepared for transport to Canada for examination as the FDR had been.
On , an article appeared in the Business Daily Africa which said that the pilots had been exonerated from blame in the crash. The article did not state who had exonerated them or why. The article also said that examination of the DFDR had shown no mechanical failures on the plane, implied that weather was the sole reason for the crash, and that the CVR
Cockpit voice recorder
A cockpit voice recorder , often referred to as a "black box", is a flight recorder used to record the audio environment in the flight deck of an aircraft for the purpose of investigation of accidents and incidents...
had not yet been recovered, despite widespread reporting 13 days earlier that it had been.
On , one year after the crash, Rabier Anani Bindji a reporter from Canal 2 International (a Cameroonian television broadcaster) visited the site and showed images of human remains, personal effects and large sections of the plane (including one of the engines) remaining at the site.
, Kenya Airways said it has yet to be provided any report about cause of the crash by investigators.
The Cameroon Civil Aviation Authority (CCAA) released its final report of the crash on 28 April 2010. The investigation found that the aircraft departed without receiving clearance from Air Traffic Control. The captain, who was the flying pilot, corrected right bank several times after take-off. After 42 seconds of flight, the captain gave a command indicating that he activated the autopilot. However the autopilot did not actually engage, nor was the command acknowledged by the copilot. The pilots did not notice that the aircraft was increasingly banking to the right from 11° when the captain indicated that he had set the autopilot to 34° when a bank angle warning sounded 40 seconds later. The captain then activated the autopilot, but his inputs on the controls lead to a further increase in the bank angle. The aircraft pitched nose-down after it reached a height of 2900 feet with 115° right bank. The two pilots used opposite and conflicting control inputs to attempt to recover the aircraft. The aircraft crashed at 287 knots at 48° down pitch and 60° right bank 1:42 after take off.
The CCAA determined the probable causes of the crash to be "loss of control of the aircraft as a result of spatial disorientation... after a long slow roll, during which no instrument scanning was done, and in the absence of external visual references in a dark night. Inadequate operational control, lack of crew coordination, coupled with the non-adherence to procedures of flight monitoring, confusion in the utilization of the [autopilot], have also contributed to cause this situation."
Nationalities of the victims
The six flight crewmembers were all Kenyan. An accompanying engineer and a deadheading flight attendant were among the passengers.| Nationality | Passengers | Crew | Total |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 0 | 1 | |
| 37 | 0 | 37 | |
| 2 | 0 | 2 | |
| 5 | 0 | 5 | |
| 2 | 0 | 2 | |
| 2 | 0 | 2 | |
| 1 | 0 | 1 | |
| 6 | 0 | 6 | |
| 1 | 0 | 1 | |
| 2 | 0 | 2 | |
| 1 | 0 | 1 | |
| 15 | 0 | 15 | |
| 3 | 6 | 9 | |
| 1 | 0 | 1 | |
| 1 | 0 | 1 | |
| 1 | 0 | 1 | |
| 1 | 0 | 1 | |
| 3 | 0 | 3 | |
| 6 | 0 | 6 | |
| 1 | 0 | 1 | |
| 7 | 0 | 7 | |
| 1 | 0 | 1 | |
| 1 | 0 | 1 | |
| 1 | 0 | 1 | |
| 1 | 0 | 1 | |
| 5 | 0 | 5 | |
| 1 | 0 | 1 | |
| Total | 108 | 6 | 114 |
Notable passengers
- Campbell Utton - CEO MTN Group Cameroon
- Sarah Stewart - CFO MTN Group Cameroon
- Amol Chauhan - The Director of Parle Products, IndiaIndiaIndia , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
- Anthony MitchellAnthony Mitchell (journalist)Anthony Mitchell was a journalist for the Associated Press. He was initially stationed in Ethiopia, but on January 21, 2006, he was expelled from the country by foreign affairs press secretary Solomon Abebe. He then moved to Kenya....
- An Associated Press reporter based in Kenya - Dr. Siaka Diarra, President West African Frenchspeaking Zone, African Union of the Blind, President Association of the Blind Burkina Faso
See also
- Flash Airlines Flight 604Flash Airlines flight 604Flash Airlines Flight 604 was a charter flight operated by Egyptian charter company Flash Airlines. On 3 January 2004, the Boeing 737-300 crashed into the Red Sea shortly after takeoff from Sharm el-Sheikh International Airport, killing all 142 passengers, many of them French tourists, and all six...
- Gulf Air Flight 072Gulf Air Flight 072On 23 August 2000, Gulf Air Flight 072 crashed into the Persian Gulf on approach to Bahrain International Airport from Cairo.-Flight and investigation:...
External links
- Cameroon Civil Aviation Authority
- "Technical Investigation." /
- Official Report (28 April 2010)
- Official Report
- "DECLARATION OF THE MINISTER OF STATE, MINISTER OF TRANSPORT."
- Wadem, Joël. "Crash de Kenya airways: l'enquête se poursuit."
- Galabe, Mirielle. "Mbanga Pongo: Les circonstances du crash demeurent un mystère."
- "Technical Investigation." /
- Kenya Airways website information
- 9 May: http://web.archive.org/web/20070509002518/http://84.40.1.214/
- 13 May: http://web.archive.org/web/20070513121401/http://84.40.1.214/index.html
- 16 May: http://web.archive.org/web/20070516121429/http://84.40.1.214/
- NTSB Factual Report (PDF)
- Reconstructing the last moments of Kenya Airways Flight 507 11 May 2007 IHT