Kenya Airways Flight 431

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**Kenya Airways Flight 431**
Summary
Date	January 30, 2000
Type	Take-off crash
Site	Off the Côte d'Ivoire
Fatalities	169
Injuries	10
Aircraft
Aircraft type	Airbus A310-304
Operator	Kenya Airways
Tail number	5Y-BEN
Passengers	169
Crew	10
Survivors	10

Kenya Airways Flight 431 on January 30, 2000 crashed into the sea at 21:09:24 GMT, shortly after takeoff from Abidjan to Lagos. There were 179 people on board the Airbus A310 jet aircraft, 169 passengers and 10 crew members. Only 10 passengers survived the crash. Of the 169 fatalities, 146 bodies were recovered. 103 of those bodies were identified.

The aircraft originated in Nairobi and was meant to stop over in Lagos but flew directly to Abidjan because of weather conditions over Lagos. Harmattan winds coming down from the Sahara to the north had made skies over Lagos unusually hazy on Sunday, and the airport stopped incoming flights. After a three-hour layover, the Kenya Airways Flight 431 took off for Lagos at 21:08 GMT and crashed into the Atlantic Ocean off the Côte d'Ivoire one minute later.

[edit] Order of crash

An errant stall warning sounds immediately after takeoff.
The pilot put the aircraft into a descent.
The crew did not apply maximum engine power.
The ground proximity warning did not sound because the stall warning took precedence.
Overspeed warning sounds.
The Captain gives the order to climb.
The aircraft collides with the sea.

The large number of fatalities is likely due to the fact that passengers did not have ample time to don life jackets. The survivors were clinging to wreckage of the plane - no rafts were inflated.