Pom Pax - Thanks for the corrections on the details of the BHP North Cessna Citation incident. Yes, I knew it was quite a while ago, but didn't realise it was that far back.
I'm saddened to hear of the "no survivors" result, but I think anyone with a realistic view would have known all along, the chances of survival in this unforgiving terrain are low.
I'm a little surprised at the location of the wreckage. According to reports, it was found "on the western ridge of the Avima Range in Congo, near the Gabonese border", and about 10kms from the Avima Iron Ore mine. Contractors from the mine are currently planning to cut an access track to the wreckage from the mine.
Because the location of the wreckage is far from a direct route from Yaounde to Mbalam, one has to suspect that the miners requested that the pilot of the CASA 212 do a detour so that they could view the iron ore operations at Avima, before circling back through the "iron ore country", that is located on the Congo/Gabonese/Cameroon border, and on to Mbalam.
Because of the description of the wreckage site, on the slopes of the Avima Range, one has to suspect that this was a simple CFIT, possibly due to pilot unfamiliarity of the area, fog, or possibly because of a request to go lower to view operations... or possibly a combination of all the preceding.
