Seven South Africans were on board the Kenya Airways plane which crashed off the coast of Cameroon on Saturday morning, Foreign Affairs spokesperson Ronnie Mamoepa said.
After being informed by the airline that there were South Africans on the plane — which was carrying 114 people — the Department of Foreign Affairs urged relatives or friends of these passengers to telephone the department on 012-351-1000.
The South Africans’ names are not yet available.
”The South African government extends heartfelt condolences to the Kenyan and Cameroonian authorities as well as the South African families,” Mamoepa said.
South Africa would also continue to support search and rescue efforts.
Distress signal
Kenya Airways said on Saturday Cameroonian authorities had picked up an automatic distress signal from the area where a jet to Nairobi went missing.
Kenya Airways Group managing director Titus Naikuni declined to confirm a Cameroon state radio report that the Boeing 737-800 plane had crashed in southern Cameroon.
But he told a news conference an electronic signal had been picked up from the area, indicating it could have come from the plane’s black box. ”The distress call came from a machine, not a pilot,” he said.
Kenyan government spokesperson Alfred Mutua told the news conference the source of the signal was about 65km south-west of Douala, where the plane took off.
”They have a helicopter in the area where the signal was coming from,” he said, adding there had been no report yet from the search mission.
Experts from Kenya Airways and Kenyan government officials including Transport Minister Chirau Ali Mwakwere were due to fly to Cameroon later on Saturday, Mutua said.
Naikuni said the plane had 105 passengers and nine crew, one less passenger than the airline had earlier said.
In addition to the South Africans, there were 34 Cameroonians, 15 Indians, five Britons and one American among the passengers.
The plane is six months old and had no service history problems, Naikuni said. Kenyan media reported that there was rain in Douala when the plane took off. – Reuters, Sapa