Talk:Kenya Airways Flight 507

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This article seems to have been started even before reports came out confirming the plane crash. 124.176.87.176 09:22, 5 May 2007 (UTC)

BBC News in UK is now showing "Cameroon Plane Crash" 194.75.37.250 09:42, 5 May 2007 (UTC)
I started Adam Air Flight 574 within five hours of the loss of contact; no wreckage was found for ten days, and the main debris field was missing for about a month. Blood Red Sandman (Talk) (Contribs) 10:05, 5 May 2007 (UTC)
Scary that it can take that long to discover wreckage. In that case in ocean, in this case in dense jungle. I'm off to post a question on the Wikipedia:Reference Desk about longest discovery times and which crashed aircraft were never discovered (eg. those early aviation pioneers). I suppose the world is not as small as modern telecommunications makes it seem. Carcharoth 14:52, 6 May 2007 (UTC)
I'd suggest the longest discovery times would be some recent discoveries of WWII US and British/Australian Air Force aircraft and flight crew remains in the highlands of Papua New Guinea. The US Army organisation that deals with that sort of work does a great job I think. I think that's about 65 years waiting for discovery. Wampusaust 04:14, 7 May 2007 (UTC)
After writing 1996 New Hampshire Learjet crash, I began wondering the same thing. Yes, there's plenty of early crashes that still haven't been found, but since the advent of modern radio equipment (arbitrarily, say, 1950? How about after the advent of ELTs?), what's the record?Akradecki 02:25, 10 May 2007 (UTC)
Northwest Airlines Flight 2501 has never been found. It vanished in 1950 on a flight from La Guardia to Minneapolis over Lake Michigan. It had been in radio contact but failed to report again after crossing the lake. This incident may have inspired Rod Serling to write The Arrival. If this happened today one could presume there were be a massive underwater search by the military. A few years ago a Kalitta cargo 747 lost an engine over Lake Michigan that has never been found either. Skywayman 23:45, 11 May 2007 (UTC)

Contents

[edit] Flight KQ 507

This article was started as Flight KQ 507, however someone saw fit to change it to Flight 507, supposedly to be consistent with other Wikipedia articles. The company itself calls it Flight KQ 507, so why do some Wikipedia contributors see fit to change this fact by omission? Ajayvius 02:06, 6 May 2007 (UTC)

The current title is like other similar air crashes (eg Adam Air Flight 574). It is also more likely users will search Kenya Airways Flight, rather than use the airline's two letter code. My two cents. Flyguy649talkcontribs 03:53, 6 May 2007 (UTC)
Indeed, the country code is not used for titles of articles about plane crashes. The correct title would be *Airline* flight 1234. --Hetfield1987 (Wesborland | James Hetfield) 02:41, 8 May 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Wikinews & Wikipedia

Why is there almost identical info in both articles? Should there even be a Wikipedia article? Perhaps once sentence in Wikipedia (at most), then redirection or link to Wikinews. rossnixon 05:11, 6 May 2007 (UTC)

Wikinews and wikipedia serve different purposes. Ultimately these articles should diverge significantly Nil Einne 05:59, 6 May 2007 (UTC)

This article is in need of expansion. I will go to BBC and AP to see what they have and will expand the article asap. Terence 06:36, 6 May 2007 (UTC)

[edit] DE-Wikipedia

de:Kenya Airways Flug 507

[edit] Countries of Origin Map

I absolutely don't see any necessity of the world map highlighting the various countries of origin. What good does that do for the article or for coverage of the plane crash in general? If you want to list the countries, as the number missing section does, that is perfectly understandable. However, the map is pointless; just because one person from the U.S. is missing, you highlight it just as you did for Cameroon where 35 people were from? I understand the need to show how diverse the passenger list was, however a better picture would be a stock photo of the plane, the wreckage, etc... Neoelitism 17:05, 6 May 2007 (UTC)

If the map is going to continue in the article can the Democratic Republic of Congo be highlighted as opposed to the Republic of the Congo (Congo-Brazzaville) —Preceding unsigned comment added by 91.125.21.122 (talk)

[edit] Reference links

Since editing for this page is restricted, here are relevant news articles

Annesville 08:23, 7 May 2007 (UTC)

[edit] External links

The "Tail number" link on the summary sidebar takes you to an AirLiners.net "Big-no-no" image. This link needs to be revised. Annesville 08:22, 7 May 2007 (UTC)

Fixed by Mareklug - Annesville 11:54, 7 May 2007 (UTC)
  • The link to the passenger list is incorrect. The link that works is:

http://84.40.1.214/Nationalities%20List.htm Iceberg007 22:13, 7 May 2007 (UTC)

The original link worked at the time. I substituted the above one for it, mentioning both in the edit summary. --Mareklug talk 23:11, 8 May 2007 (UTC)

[edit] 104 + 9 = 114?

If there were 104 passengers and 9 crew, then how is there 114 fatalities? Does the 9 crew exclude the pilot but include the copilot (and flight engineer if there was one)? Is there some confusion because one of the crew members is not a Kenyan? Nil Einne 16:22, 7 May 2007 (UTC)

All sources I've seen say 105 passengers and 9 crew. --Zamphuor 16:28, 7 May 2007 (UTC)

There was some confusion I believe because one person on board was an airline staff member of some sort who wasn't actually working, maybe a deadhead? Becaused of that, various sources recorded that person as crew and others as passenger. Ajayvius 00:06, 9 May 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Houston Chronicle?

Seems a bit strange that one of three links at the end is to the Houston Chronicle? Rross101 18:09, 7 May 2007 (UTC)

[edit] why so many Indians & why so few Kenyans?

i'm genuinely curious, why so many people from india in an 'inter-african' flight? --Leladax 22:28, 7 May 2007 (UTC)

Very likely they were investors or working for some company in India. There was also 5 people from PRC. Nil Einne 09:23, 8 May 2007 (UTC)

It seems unusual, along these lines of thought, that with a Kenyan national airliner en-route to the capital city of Kenya, the only Kenyans on board were the actual crew - no Kenyan passengers. Is that typical of Kenya Airways flights? Maybe Kenyans can't afford to fly. On Australian Qantas aircraft, I would expect maybe 80% of passengers to be Australian. Ajayvius 00:13, 9 May 2007 (UTC)

Nairobi airport is an important hub in Africa and most passengers of the ill-fated plane were probably heading for Asia or Middle East. On the other hand, passenger volume between most African countries are generally low. Anyway, it's a bit interesting that not a single passenger was from Kenya. Julius Sahara 16:16, 9 May 2007 (UTC)

There are two possible reasons for the few Kenyans on the plane. Kenya's airline is one of the bigger ones in Africa. It also has a codeshare with KLM. These two factors along with an aggressive expansion into the vaccum of West Africa explain why such a small country has its airliners as far West as Cameroon and Abdijan. There is little reason for Kenyans to be travelling in this direction, we do little trade with West Africa. On the other hand,in addition to being a major conference site Nairobi is an important hub for flights from the the Far East,the Indian sub-continent and the Middle East going on to West Africa. This is especially important for traders travelling to Dubai, Hong Kong and the Chinese mainland.

The second possible reason is that some of the Indians were actually Kenyan. Many Kenyan Indians hold more than one passport. ||||

[edit] Crash site

Articles such as this one are stating that the crash site was Mbanga Pongo. However, I can't figure out if this is the name of a town, a village, or the mangrove swamp where the plane went down. It's probably worth mentioning in the article, but I thought I'd ask if anyone knows what this place is. Google results are little help, since removing terms related to the crash leaves only some non-English pages. — Brian (talk) 06:52, 8 May 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Why So Protected?

Why Is This Page Protected? Lukecarpenter169 07:32, 8 May 2007 (UTC)

[1] Nil Einne 09:24, 8 May 2007 (UTC)

[edit] crash site location: 5.42 km from the end of the runway in Douala, not 20 km from the airport - please verify

According to news reports from 8 May 2007 Reuters India, the site of the crash is 5.42 km from the end of the runway in Douala, not 20 km from the airport as reported earlier and currently stated in the article in the infobox and in the text.

"From the end of the runway (to the crash site) it is 5.42 kilometres ... relatively close to Douala airport," Kenyan government spokesman Alfred Mutua said in Nairobi."

—Reuters India

Could someone verify this as well as provide an updated coordinate spec for the infobox? --Mareklug talk 22:32, 8 May 2007 (UTC)

I concur. Recent sources such as [2] are starting to say 3 miles and also 30 seconds flight time, which are consistent with the 5.42 km. Best coordinates based on this data are now 3.978° N 9.775° E, though I don't have time to update the article myself right now. --GregU 06:54, 9 May 2007 (UTC)
I sanity-checked your coordinates using the web coordinates-to-distance calculator: [3], using the coords in the external link to World Aero Data record in the Douala International Airport article which should be designating the midpoint of the runway. The result, 6.90 kilometers SE (116°) is consistent with the length of the runway (2,853 meters) and its orientation (12/30) (true heading of 117 deg. according the same source) and the media-reported distance figure of "5.42 km from the end of runway": 6.90 - 1.4265 = 5.47 km. I double-checked by plugging in coords for runway 30 from WAD, which should be the end of runway 12, and got 5.47 kilometers SE (116°) [4]. --Mareklug talk 08:07, 9 May 2007 (UTC)
Media says the plane flew 30 seconds only, so 5-6 kilometers is realistic. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 82.131.210.162 (talk) 10:08, 9 May 2007 (UTC).
Yep that's basically what I did -- used Google Earth to extend the runway 5.42 km out from the runway end coordinates given in WAD. The 0.05 km discrepancy is due to rounding the coordinates to three places, but didn't want to add more false precision since we don't know for sure the flight path. The original presumed flight path towards Lolodorf would be more southerly, but seems a flight path towards Kenya would be more northerly (unless it had another stop?). So staying on runway centerline seems reasonable for now. --GregU 14:36, 9 May 2007 (UTC)
Ah, the latest press release on the Kenya Airways site explains the discrepancy between the two distances:
The aircraft went down 5.42 km from the edge of the runway. The journey from Douala to the site on the ground however, is approximately 20 Km due to the fact that it is not a direct route.
--GregU 14:47, 9 May 2007 (UTC)

[edit] WikiProject class rating

This article was automatically assessed because at least one WikiProject had rated the article as start, and the rating on other projects was brought up to start class. BetacommandBot 03:58, 9 November 2007 (UTC)