TRAGEDY OF KQ 507 IN D0UALA

An investigation into the crash says that the pilot and co-pilot made a number of errors and failed to observe standard operating procedures on taking off in bad weather from Douala airport, Cameroon. Flight KQ 507 crashed on the night of May 4, 2007, shortly after take off. Using auto-pilot The plane started its journey in Abidjan, Ivory Coast, and made a stopover at Douala, enroute to Nairobi. The report also partly attributes the crash to bad weather and a manufacturing defect in the Boeing 737-800 that caused the plane to pitch to the right. That could easily have been corrected by a pilot familiar with the problem, but the reports says the aircraft manufacturer omitted the information in the training manual. Analysis of the Black Boxes, the flight data recorder and the cockpit voice recorder, showed that the captain and his first officer also made wrong decisions when confronted by an emergency, failed to properly communicate and coordinate, and panicked when the situation could still have been salvaged. “The aeroplane 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,” says the report.