Signal picked up from missing Kenya Airways plane

NAIROBI, May 4 (Reuters) Kenya Airways said today Cameroonian authorities had picked up an automatic distress signal from the area where a passenger jet carrying 114 people to Nairobi went missing.

Kenya Airways Group Managing Director Titus Naikuni declined to confirm a Cameroon state radio report that the Boeing 737-800 plane had crashed in southern Cameroon.

But he told a news conference an electronic signal had been picked up from the area, indicating it could have come from the plane's black box. ''The distress call came from a machine, not a pilot,'' he said.

Kenyan government spokesman Alfred Mutua told the news conference the source of the signal was about 65 km southwest of Douala, where the plane took off.

''They have a helicopter in the area where the signal was coming from,'' he said, adding there had been no report yet from the search mission.

Experts from Kenya Airways and Kenyan government officials including Transport Minister Chirau Ali Mwakwere were due to fly to Cameroon later today, Mutua said.

Naikuni said the plane had 105 passengers and nine crew, one less passenger than the airline had earlier said.

There were 34 Cameroonians, 15 Indians, five Britons and one American among the 105 passengers, the bulk of whom were from African countries.

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

REUTERS SBC BD1636