Today in History: Plane crashes off Ivory Coast
The plane was forced to make a three-hour stopover in Abidjan, Ivory Coast, after having taken off from Nairobi, Kenya.
On this day in 2000, a Kenya Airways Airbus A-310 crashes into the Atlantic Ocean off the Ivory Coast just after takeoff.
Because the passengers did not have enough time to put on life jackets, only 10 people out of the 179 on board survived. Kenya Airways Flight 431 left Nairobi, Kenya, and was supposed to stop in Lagos, Nigeria, but was forced to land in Abidjan, Ivory Coast, because of strong Saharan winds.
After waiting three hours, the Airbus took off from Abidjan at 9.08pm. As the plane left the ground, a stall warning signal sounded in the pilot’s cabin. Apparently, the signal was faulty. However, it caused the pilot to descend and ignore ground proximity warning signals. Within a minute, the Airbus jet crashed into the ocean.
The dark of night made rescue efforts virtually impossible. Ambulances, firefighters, police officers, soldiers and divers waited at the beach near the crash site until the early morning hours when there was enough light to see.
However, by the time they could begin searching, there was little to be done other than collect the bodies that were washing ashore. Eventually, 146 bodies out of the 169 fatalities were recovered. Many of the victims appeared to have survived the initial crash, but subsequently drowned.
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