Cameroon widens search for Kenya Airways plane

YAOUNDE, May 6 (Reuters) Helicopters and villagers on motorbikes combed thick tropical forest in southern Cameroon today for a missing Kenya Airways passenger plane but found nothing and widened the search.

The Boeing 737-800 aircraft, which was carrying 114 people from more than 20 countries, went missing yesterday shortly after taking off from Douala for Nairobi in torrential rain.

The helicopters and motorbikes searched a swathe of thick forest, roughly 100 km southwest of the capital Yaounde yesterday, but had to suspend the search overnight due to darkness and heavy rain.

The search resumed on Sunday using radar-equipped helicopters, including one sent by the French military from a base in Gabon, but again found nothing.

Rescuers began a new air and ground search near the airport where fishermen reported a loud noise the night of the crash.

''Fisherman reported hearing a loud bang accompanied by significant water disturbance,'' Kenya Airways Group Managing Director Titus Naikuni told a Nairobi news conference.

''This was the night the KQ aircraft went missing. This particular information now raises the possibility that the aircraft may have come down in that particular area,'' he said.

A ground team and an aircraft had been dispatched to the area, a swamp around 40 km from Douala airport.

Earlier, Cameroon state radio interrupted broadcasts to say the plane had been found near Mvengue, southwest of Yaounde, only to say later it could not confirm the report.

HOPE AND GRIEF Relatives of those on board have turned up at airports and Kenya Airways offices in both cities seeking information, some weeping, others clutching radios or cellphones to their ears.

In the Kenyan capital Nairobi many joined special Sunday prayer services for the missing.

''I still have hope because, so far, we don't know what happened to the plane. It could have crash-landed and there are people there waiting to be rescued. That is what is giving us hope,'' Bernard Kadurenge, brother of missing flight attendant Cyprian Kadurenge, told Reuters in Nairobi.

Earlier, Naikuni said a signal from the plane's emergency locator beacon that had been picked up on Saturday was lost, he said, raising fears the machine's battery may run out.

''The equipment is only able to transmit information for 48 hours,'' he said. ''The signal is not being received right now.'' A joint French-Cameroonian military team was due to join the search, and officials from plane manufacturer Boeing and the US National Transportation Safety Board were due in Cameroon to help investigations, the airline said.

The United States was providing satellite imagery to help in the search, and Kenyan government spokesman Alfred Mutua said other governments would pitch in.

A Kenyan search team arrived in Cameroon late on Saturday.

The aircraft, which was only six months old, was carrying 105 passengers and nine crew, most of them African with others from China, India, Europe and elsewhere. The flight originated in Ivory Coast.

Anthony Mitchell, a journalist working for the Associated Press in Nairobi, was among five Britons on board, according to Kenya Airways' passenger manifest.

South African cellphone operator MTN said its Cameroon subsidiary's chief executive, company secretary, chief financial officer and her husband, and a network engineer were all on the plane. Oil company Chevron said two employees were also on board.

Kenya Airways has three 737-800s in its fleet and Naikuni said they had not decided whether to ground the others.

Reuters SM DB2220