The aircraft involved in the accident is seen here at Leonardo da Vinci-Fiumicino Airport. (1993) |
|
| Accident summary | |
|---|---|
| Date | January 30, 2000 |
| Type | Electrical fault combined with pilot error |
| Site | Off the coast of Côte d'Ivoire |
| Passengers | 169 |
| Crew | 10 |
| Injuries | 10 |
| Fatalities | 169 |
| Survivors | 10 |
| Aircraft type | Airbus A310-304 |
| Aircraft name | Harambee Star |
| Operator | Kenya Airways |
| Tail number | 5Y-BEN |
| Flight origin | Félix Houphouët-Boigny International Airport, Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire |
| Stopover | Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos, Nigeria |
| Destination | Jomo Kenyatta International Airport, Nairobi, Kenya |
Kenya Airways Flight 431 was an international scheduled Abidjan–Lagos–Nairobi passenger service, operated with an Airbus A310-304, registration 5Y-BEN, that crashed into the sea, off the coast of Côte d'Ivoire, on 30 January 2000 at 21:09:24 GMT, shortly after take-off from Félix Houphouët-Boigny International Airport.[1][2] There were 179 people on board, of whom 169 were passengers.[1][2][3][4][5] It was the first fatal accident for Kenya Airways.[6][7]
Contents |
The aircraft, named “Harambee Star”, had been bought new by the airline in 1986.[1][6][7] The flight originated in Nairobi as Flight KQ430, and was due to land in Abidjan after a stopover in Lagos.[1] Many Nigerians who traveled to Dubai for duty-free shopping patronized this flight.[8] The accident flight flew directly to Abidjan because of weather conditions over Lagos.[4][9] More specifically, harmattan winds blowing southwards from the Sahara made skies over Lagos unusually hazy on that day, and all incoming flights at Lagos Airport were halted.
After a three-hour layover, the plane took off for Lagos at 21:08 GMT and crashed into the Atlantic Ocean, 2 kilometres (1.2 mi) east of the airport, off the coast of Côte d'Ivoire, about a minute later.[10]
This was Kenya Airways' first fatal accident.[6][7] After the accident, Kenya Airways set up a crisis centre at the Nairobi Inter-Continental Hotel in Nairobi.[9][11]
Most of the passengers and crew were reported to be Nigerians.[3][4] Two of the crewmembers on board worked for KLM.[4]
The 168 deceased came from 33 countries. The nationality of one additional deceased victim was not determined. Following is a list of the nationalities of the deceased:[12]
| Nationality | Number |
|---|---|
| Nigeria | 84 |
| Kenya | 20 |
| India | 8 |
| "Congo" (specific country undisclosed) | 5 |
| Uganda | 5 |
| Madagascar | 4 |
| Senegal | 3 |
| Togo | 3 |
| Canada | 2 |
| Côte d'Ivoire | 2 |
| Ethiopia | 2 |
| France | 2 |
| Ghana | 2 |
| Iran | 2 |
| Mali | 2 |
| Netherlands | 2 |
| Philippines | 2 |
| Rwanda | 2 |
| United States | 2 |
| Zambia | 2 |
| Belgium | 1 |
| Burkina Faso | 1 |
| Burundi | 1 |
| Chad | 1 |
| Gambia | 1 |
| Guinea | 1 |
| Ireland | 1 |
| Liberia | 1 |
| Mauritania | 1 |
| Spain | 1 |
| Tanzania | 1 |
| Zimbabwe | 1 |
| Undetermined | 1 |
| Total (33 nationalities) | 169 |
Powerboat operators and fishermen extracted at least seven of the survivors from the water. Of those survivors, three were Nigerians, one was a Kenyan, one was a Gambian, one was an Indian, and one was a Rwandan. One survivor, a Frenchman, swam almost 1 mile (1.6 km) to the shore.[11][13][14] Of the 12 initial survivors, 2 died in the hospital. Of the 10 ultimate survivors, 9 received serious injuries and one received minor injuries. Due to contact with jet fuel in the water, four survivors received first degree burns.[12]
The University Hospital Medical Center at Treichville (Centre Hospitalier et Universitaire de Treichville (CHU)) in Abidjan examined the deceased. The center identified 103 of the bodies and was unable to identify the other 43. Of the 145 of the deceased, 108 died from serious poly-traumatic lesions, 22 died from a combination of drowning lesions and serious poly-traumatic lesions, and 15 died solely from drowning lesions. The hospital could not determine the injuries sustained by one of the bodies. According to the autopsy reports, a violent deceleration or a twisting or cutting action resulted in the injuries. 43 of the deceased received first degree burns due to contact with the jet fuel spilled in the water. The pilots died from poly-traumatic lesions and the first degree burns from the jet fuel.[12]
The Bureau d'Enquêtes et d'Analyses pour la Sécurité de l'Aviation Civile, the accident investigation authority of France, assisted in the search for the flight recorders.[15] The Transportation Safety Board of Canada analyzed the flight safety recorders.[16]
The Ministry of Transport of the Republic of Côte d'Ivoire published the original French language accident report. The BEA published its English version of the report.[17]
The sequence of events were as follows:
To date, the accident has the highest death toll of any aviation accident involving an Airbus A310.
Kenya Airways paid compensation to families of 60 deceased Nigerians. Each family received $130,000 USD (about 1.1 million ZAR).[18]
| External images | |
|---|---|
| Pre-crash photos of 5Y-BEN in Airliners.net | |
|
||||||||||||