AIR CRASH INVESTIGATIONS, CAPTAIN LOST CONTROL The Crash of Kenya Airways Flight 507

Book excerpt: During the night of 04th May 2007, the B737-800, registration 5Y-KYA, operated by Kenya Airways as flight KQA 507 from Abidjan international airport (C te d'Ivoire), to the Jomo Kenyatta airport Nairobi (Kenya), made a scheduled stop-over at the Douala international airport (Cameroon). The weather was stormy. A number of departing planes decided to wait for the weather to improve. Kenya Airways, however, decided to depart. Shortly after take-off at about 1000 ft, the aircraft entered into a slow right roll that increased continuously and eventually ended up in a spiral dive. On the 5th May 2007 at approximately 0008 hrs, the airplane crashed in a mangrove swamp South-South/East of Douala. All 114 people on board were killed and the airplane was completely destroyed. The airplane crashed after loss of control by the crew as a result of spatial disorientation, after a long slow roll, during which no instrument scanning was done, and in the absence of external visual references in a dark night.