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No survivors in Kenya plane crash, rescuers say
Rescuers in Cameroon hacked through mangrove thickets with machetes and chain saws on Monday (local time) to reach a crashed Kenya Airways plane, but officials said all 114 on board were dead.
The Boeing 737-800 vanished early on Saturday minutes after leaving Douala for Nairobi in torrential rain.
\"The plane crashed into mangrove swamp surrounded by forest and the explosion made a crater, creating a mini lake filled with water, mud and kerosene, full of clothes and debris,\" said Dr Patricia Ngamga on her way back from the site.
\"The nose of the plane plunged into the mud and the tail had blown off and there isn't any more.\"
Red Cross workers laid down white plastic sheets while some of their colleagues went towards the crash site carrying stretchers, while helicopters and planes buzzed overhead.
\"There are no chances that there will be any survivors because almost the entire body of the plane was buried inside the swamp,\" said Jean-Pierre Nana, director of Cameroon's Civil Protection Department.
The plane was found late on Sunday in a mangrove swamp near Mbanga Pongo, around 20 kilometres from Douala Airport.
It was finally located after nearly two days of fruitless searches well over 100 kilometres away in south Cameroon, where radar-equipped helicopters and villagers on motorbikes spent most of the weekend combing tropical forest.
- Reuters |
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