Passenger plane with 11 on board crashes in Cameroon
A rescue mission was under way in the forests of central Cameroon after a plane with 11 people on board crashed.
Air-traffic controllers lost radio contact with the aircraft while it was in mid-air on Wednesday, the Ministry of Transport said.
Following an air and ground search, it was “located in the forest” near Nanga Eboko, about 150 kilometres northeast of the capital Yaounde.
A ministry official said the plane had crashed and rescuers were “trying to see if it’s possible to save anyone”.
Local people were reported to have been asked to help in the search for survivors.
The plane was chartered by a private company, the Cameroon Oil Transportation Company, which maintains a hydrocarbon pipeline that runs between Cameroon and neighbouring Chad, officials told AFP.
The aircraft was flying from Yaounde Nsimalen International Airport to Belabo in the east of the country, the ministry said.
It was the first major air accident reported in Cameroon since 2007, when a Kenya Airways plane carrying 114 people crashed after taking off from Douala Airport.
There were no survivors in that accident.
Three years later, an investigation by Cameroon’s civil aviation authority concluded it was caused by pilot error.
Since then, only minor air accidents involving small passenger planes or helicopters had occurred in the country.