CAMEROON: Identification efforts continue at crash site of Kenyan plane that killed all 114 on board

Record ID: 533060

  • Title: CAMEROON: Identification efforts continue at crash site of Kenyan plane that killed all 114 on board
  • Date: 9th May 2007
  • Summary: (SOUNDBITE) (French) PSYCHOLOGIST DR LUC-RICHARD KOUOH DIPANDA, SAYING: "When we take a body with a ring, with a name marked on it, or a part of the remains that still have an id or a pocket with an id in, we simply identify it and we give a name to this person."
  • Embargoed: 24th May 2007 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Cameroon
  • Country: Cameroon
  • Topics: Disasters / Accidents / Natural catastrophes
  • Reuters ID: LVA45LFLH79IG8VNR4MC6STV8BQA
  • Story Text: Forensic experts are identifying the remains of the 114 victims of a Kenya Airways plane which crashed in Cameroon last Friday.

    Investigators and rescue officials, continued the difficult task on Wednesday (May 9) of identifying bodies and remains of bodies which are still being brought out from the swampy jungle where the shattered wreckage of the Boeing 737-800 lies.
    The Kenya Airways plane crashed on Friday night killing all 114 passengers on board, minutes after takeoff from Cameroon's city of Douala.
    Cameroon opened an inquiry on Tuesday (May 8) into the crash of a Kenya Airways plane which rescuers took two days to find, and forensic experts began trying to identify the remains of the 114 victims.
    Unconfirmed reports from the crash site say that so far 80 bodies have been identified, but the gruelling task continues, as rescuers sieve through every little piece of information they can bring back from the site.
    "When we take a body with a ring, with a name marked on it, or a part of the remains that still have an id or a pocket with an id in, we simply identify it and we give a name to this person," said Cameroonian psychologist Dr. Luc-Richard Kouoh Dipanda, who's assisting investigators at the site.
    On the edge of waterlogged jungle surrounding the crash site, white-coated Red Cross workers laid out blackened body parts on white plastic sheets at a makeshift rescue centre, as well as any personal belongings they could find, that could help them positively identify the victims.
    Cameroon Prime Minister Ephraim Inoni ordered Transport Minister Dakole Daissala to lead a formal government inquiry into the crash, which once again threw the spotlight on air safety in Africa, the continent with the world's worst record.
    The inquiry was expected to focus not only on why the plane, only six months old, came down in stormy weather, but also why rescuers took 48 hours to find the crash site.
    Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki declared next Monday a national day of mourning for the crash victims.
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