Kenya Airways plane crashes in Cameroon - radio

YAOUNDE, May 5 (Reuters) A Kenya Airways passenger plane bound for Nairobi with 114 people on board crashed in southern Cameroon today shortly after takeoff, the central African country's state radio said.

The plane crashed near Niete, south of the Cameroonian port town of Kribi and north of the border with Equatorial Guinea, after taking off from Cameroon's second city of Douala, the radio said. It gave no further details.

In Nairobi, Kenya Airways Group Managing Director Titus Naikuni declined to confirm the radio report but said authorities in Cameroon had picked up an automatic distress signal from the area where the plane went missing.

''The distress call came from a machine, not a pilot,'' he said.

Kenya government spokesman Alfred Mutua told the news conference the signal was coming from an area about 64.8 kilometres southwest of Douala.

''They have a helicopter in the area,'' he said, adding there had been no report yet from that mission.

Kenya Airways said the 737-800 airliner, which began its journey in Ivory Coast's main city Abidjan and stopped over in Cameroon, was carrying 105 passengers and nine crew. Officials had earlier said there were 106 passengers.

The airline said there were 34 Cameroonians, 15 Indians, seven South Africans, six Chinese, five Britons and one American among the passengers, the bulk of whom were from African countries. The nine crew were all Kenyans.

The company said the Douala control tower had received the last message from the aircraft right after takeoff. The plane had been due to land in Nairobi at 06:15 hrs (0845 IST).

Kenya Airways, one of Africa's few profitable carriers, set up a crisis centre to monitor events and a passenger information centre at a hotel in Nairobi.

The carrier generally has a good safety record on a continent where air accidents are above the world average.

The plane was six months old and had no history of problems, Naikuni said. Kenyan media reported there was rain in Douala when the plane took off.

On Jan. 30, 2000, a Kenya Airways Airbus A-310 crashed into the sea shortly after takeoff from Abidjan, killing 169 of the 179 passengers and crew.

REUTERS SBC PM1659