Salon :: Tech & Business

Ask the Pilot: What caused the Kenya Airlines 737 to nose-dive just after takeoff, killing all aboard? We still don't know -- and neither does the press

In the early morning hours of Saturday, May 5, a Kenya Airways 737 bound for Nairobi crashed after takeoff from Douala, Cameroon, killing all 114 passengers and crew. <P>The wreckage of Flight 507 wasn't discovered until late the following day, found by a local hunter in a mangrove forest three and half miles from the airport. There were no survivors, and the wreckage pattern, or lack thereof, revealed a violent, presumably out-of-control impact. The plane had gone nose-first into the swamp, with only a small bit of wreckage visible at the surface. There was little else to go on, though witnesses spoke of the flight having departed toward an area of heavy rain and thunderstorms. <P>Reading the accounts from 6,000 miles away, it struck me that almost anything was possible: With those storms in mind, perhaps intense turbulence had caused some sort of structural damage. Perhaps torrential rain, or hail, had something to do with it. Or maybe the weather wasn't a factor at all. Who could say? <p>...</p><img src="http://feeds.salon.com/~r/salon/tech/~4/117594002" height="1" width="1"/>

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