The aircraft involved in the accident was an Airbus A310-304, registration 5Y-BEN, named Harambee Star. With c/n 426, the airframe entered service with Kenya Airways in. The aircraft had logged 58,115 flight hours at the time of the accident. It was powered by two GE CF6-80C2A2 engines. The port and starboard engines' serial numbers were 690,120 and 690,141, respectively; before the crash, they had accumulated 43,635 and 41,754 flight hours, respectively. The flight was under the command of 44-year-old Captain Paul Muthee, an experienced officer who had logged 11,636 flying hours at the time of the accident, 1,664 on an Airbus A310. He qualified as an A310 pilot on 10 August 1986, and also held ratings for Boeing 737-300, Boeing 737-200, Fokker 50 and Fokker 27, as well as various small aircraft. The first officer was 43-year-old Lazaro Mutumbi Mulli, who had 7,295 hours of flight time, 5,768 in an A310. Both pilots had performed four landings and four takeoffs on the type at Abidjan Airport; their last takeoff from the airport took place on the day of the accident. First officer Mulli was the pilot flying on the accident flight. The airframe was completely destroyed by the impact.
Accident
The flight originated in Nairobi as Flight KQ430, and was due to land in Abidjan after a stopover in Lagos. Many Nigerians who travelled to Dubai for duty-free shopping used this flight. On this day, after being held over Lagos, the flight continued directly to Abidjan because of poor local weather conditions. More specifically, harmattan winds blowing southwards from the Sahara made skies over Lagos unusually hazy on that day, and all incoming flights at Lagos Airport were halted. After a three-hour layover, the plane took off for Lagos at 21:08 GMT. However just seconds after takeoff, at the moment when first officer requested the landing gear to be retracted, the stall warning sounded in the cockpit. The landing gear remained down. In response, the crew put the aircraft into a controlled descent. The first officer told the captain to silence the stall warning. The Ground proximity warning system then sounded briefly, though the radio altimeter sent out warnings seconds after, cutting off the GPWS warning. The master warning then sounded indicating that the aircraft was overspeeding, at which point the captain shouted, "go up," but the aircraft was descending too quickly to recover. The aircraft crashed into the Atlantic Ocean, east of the airport, off the coast of Côte d'Ivoire. After the accident, the airline set up a crisis centre at the InterContinental Hotel in Nairobi. This was Kenya Airways' first fatal accident.
Passengers and crew
There were 169 casualties, out of 179 people on board the aircraft. Most of the passengers and crew were reported to be Nigerians. Two of the crewmembers on board worked for KLM. The 168 people who lost their lives whose nationalities are known came from 33 countries; the nationality of one additional deceased victim was not determined. Following is a list of the nationalities of the deceased:
Nationality
Number
Nigeria
84
Kenya
20
India
8
"Congo"
5
Uganda
5
Madagascar
4
Senegal
3
Togo
3
Canada
2
Ivory Coast
2
Ethiopia
2
France
2
Ghana
2
Iran
2
Mali
2
Netherlands
2
Philippines
2
Rwanda
2
United States
2
Zambia
2
Belgium
1
Burkina Faso
1
Burundi
1
Chad
1
Gambia
1
Guinea
1
Ireland
1
Liberia
1
Mauritania
1
Spain
1
Tanzania
1
Zimbabwe
1
Undetermined
1
Total
169
Powerboat operators and fishermen extracted at least seven of the survivors from the water. Of those survivors, three were Nigerians, one was a Kenyan, one was a Gambian, one was an Indian, and one was a Rwandan. One survivor, a Frenchman, swam almost to the shore. Of the 12 initial survivors, two died in the hospital. Of the ten ultimate survivors, nine received serious injuries and one received minor injuries. Four survivors received first-degree burns from contact with jet fuel in the water. The entire crew of ten died in the accident. The University Hospital Medical Center at Treichville in Abidjan examined the deceased. The center identified 103 of the bodies and was unable to identify the other 43. Of the deceased, the following causes of death were established: 108 died from serious poly-traumatic injuries, 22 died from a combination of drowning and serious poly-traumatic injuries, and 15 died solely from drowning. The hospital could not determine the injuries sustained by one of the 146 bodies. According to the autopsy reports, a violent deceleration or a twisting or cutting action resulted in the injuries. Forty-three of the deceased received first-degree burns due to contact with the jet fuel spilled in the water. The pilots died from poly-traumatic injuries; they also received first-degree burns from the jet fuel. , the accident is the deadliest involving the Airbus A310.
The ground proximity warning does not sound because the stall warning takes precedence.
Overspeed warning sounds.
The Captain gives the order to climb.
The aircraft collides with the sea.
The report noted that taking offafter dark, towards the sea, the pilots lacked visual references, and recommended that for crews of aircraft in which false stall warnings are likely, type rating and later training should include ways to recognise and manage such false warnings when close to the ground.
Aftermath
Kenya Airways compensated the families of 60 deceased Nigerians; each family received.
