Search for survivors after plane crashes into Cameroon forest
Rescuers are searching for survivors after a plane carrying 11 people crashed in a forest in central Cameroon on Wednesday.
Air traffic controllers ‘lost radio contact with the aircraft’ which was later ‘located in the forest’ near Nanga Eboko, around 90 miles northeast of the capital Yaounde, the Ministry of Transport said.
A government official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the plane ‘crashed’ and rescuers were ‘trying to see if it’s possible to save anyone’.
The plane was chartered by the Cameroon Oil Transportation Company (COTCO), a private firm that maintains a hydrocarbon pipeline running between Cameroon and neighbouring Chad, official sources said.
The aircraft, whose type and make was not made public, was flying from Yaounde-Nsimalen airport to Belabo, in the east of the country, the ministry statement said.
It was the first major air catastrophe reported in Cameroon since 2007, when a Kenya Airways plane carrying 114 people crashed after take-off from Douala Airport, killing everyone on board.
Three years later, an investigation by Cameroon’s civil aviation authority concluded that the crash was due to pilot error.
Since then, Cameroon has only experienced minor air accidents involving small passenger planes or helicopters.
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