Slow progress in investigation.
Slow crash inquiry frustrates U.S.
The investigation into the May 5 crash in Cameroon of a new Boeing 737-800 has been so slow and frustrating that some members of a U.S. team sent there to help have returned home.
A U.S. government source, speaking on condition of anonymity, said members of the U.S. team only recently were able to begin a detailed examination of crash wreckage.
Even more frustrating for investigators, the source said, is the delay in analyzing the Kenya Airways plane's flight data recorder. One of two so-called black boxes on the plane, it was found shortly after the crash site was located, but local authorities have refused to send it away for examination. Cameroonian authorities apparently have not been able to decide who should have jurisdiction.
The flight data recorder could provide valuable clues to what caused the plane to crash shortly after takeoff, apparently during a storm. All 105 passengers and nine crew members were killed.
Nearly 1,200 of the Boeing 737-800 models are in operation around the world.
Of two Boeing Co. investigators sent to the scene after the crash, one has returned to Seattle. The lone Federal Aviation Administration representative also has left. And some members of a National Transportation Safety Board team have pulled out, the source said, although the lead NTSB investigator is still there.
Boeing, the FAA and the safety board all declined comment Thursday, although a Boeing spokeswoman confirmed that the company still has one person at the scene.
Aviation experts say the slow pace of the investigation is typical of what can happen after a jet crash in Africa.
But it is important that the flight data recorder be examined as soon as possible, said John Nance, a former 737 pilot for Alaska Airlines and an aviation safety consultant.
This was a new Boeing jet, he said, and there so far are few clues as to what may have happened. The crash could have been weather-related, the result of pilot error, a mechanical problem or even sabotage, he said.
It's important that U.S. experts not be hindered in their investigation, he said.
Media reports from Kenya and Cameroon have said the two countries have been unable to agree on who should examine the flight data recorder.
A Kenyan official has been quoted as saying that country would like the flight data recorder to be examined by Canadian authorities rather than the NTSB to avoid bias. But the decision is up to officials in Cameroon, who reportedly want the French to analyze the data.
Boeing said the flight data recorder on the jet is one of the latest models and was able to record 1,000 parameters of information. For investigators, that could provide a gold mine of clues about what went wrong.
The jet's other black box, which would have recorded the conversations in the cockpit between the two pilots, as well as the sound of any alarms going off, has not been found.
In addition to the squabble between governments over the flight data recorder, the investigation has been hampered by the location of the crash -- in a swamp. Most of the wreckage remains buried in muck.
Kenya Airways Flight 507 went down near the village of Mbanga Pongo near Douala, Cameroon. The Boeing 737-800 was headed for Nairobi.
It was a new plane, delivered by Boeing in October to Singapore Aircraft Leasing Enterprise, which leased it to Kenya Airways. The airline took delivery of two other 737-800s from the leasing company last year.
The jet that crashed had accumulated fewer than 500 cycles, according to Boeing. Each takeoff and landing counts as a cycle.
It was only the second crash ever of one of Boeing's next-generation 737s in which passengers were killed. The first occurred in the heart of the Amazon jungle over Brazil in September when a 737-800 operated by Gol collided at 37,000 feet with a private jet. The private jet did not have cockpit equipment turned on that could have alerted the pilots that they were on a collision course with the airliner.
All 155 people onboard the Gol 737 were killed.
Until the Gol accident, the only fatal accident involving a next-generation 737 occurred when a Southwest 737-700 was unable to stop after landing in a snowstorm at Chicago's Midway Airport. The plane went through a fence at the end of the runway and hit at least two cars, killing a 6-year-old boy in one.
Boeing makes four next-generation 737 models -- the 737-600, -700, -800 and -900. The first to enter airline service was the 737-700, with Southwest in December 1997.
More than 2,000 next-generation 737s are in operation with airlines around the world.
The 737-800 entered airline service in spring 1998. It has become the best-selling of the next-generation models.
Through April, airlines had ordered 2,174 of the 737-800s, according to Boeing. About 1,000 of those have not yet been delivered.