Kenya Airways plane crashes

YAOUNDE: A Kenya Airways passenger plane bound for Nairobi with 115 people on board crashed in southern Cameroon on Saturday shortly after takeoff, the central African country's state radio said.

The radio said the plane had crashed near Niete, south of the Cameroonian port town of Kribi and north of the border with Equatorial Guinea. It gave no further details.

Kenya Airways earlier said it had lost contact with a 737-800 airliner bound for Nairobi shortly after it took off from Douala in Cameroon.

The plane was carrying 106 passengers and nine crew, Kenya Airways Group Managing Director Titus Naikuni told a news conference in Nairobi.

The company said the Douala control tower had received the last message from the aircraft right after takeoff. The plane had been due to land in Nairobi at 6:15 a.m.

An official at Douala airport said they had no information on the plane. Foreign diplomats in Cameroon said they had heard the Kenya Airways statement but had no further details.

Kenya Airways, one of Africa's few profitable carriers, said it had set up a crisis centre to monitor events and a passenger information centre at a local hotel.

The plane had landed in Cameroon after taking off from Abidjan in Ivory Coast, Naikuni said.

On Jan. 30, 2000, a Kenya Airways Airbus A-310 crashed into the sea shortly after takeoff from Abidjan, killing 169 of the 179 passengers and crew.