Kenya: Bodies flown to Nairobi

2003-07-23 16:49

Nairobi - The remains of 12 US tourists and two South African pilots, whose light aircraft crashed into Mount Kenya at the weekend, were airlifted to Nairobi on Wednesday for a post-mortem, police said.

"We brought the bodies to Nairobi today (Wednesday) and handed them over to the US and South African officials at Lee Funeral Home (a private mortuary) in Nairobi," Kenya police Captain Gilbert Gitonga told AFP by telephone.

Gitonga said the autopsies would start "as soon as possible."

The 14 people died on Saturday when their plane ploughed into a rocky peak of Mount Kenya amid thick clouds and disintegrated into several pieces, scattering human remains widely.

Gitonga said aircraft accident investigators from Kenya, the United States and South Africa were flown to the crash site early Wednesday for on-site analysis, the first step in the month-long probe.

Mist and the difficult terrain of Point Lenana, Mount Kenya's third highest peak, prevented a police helicopter from landing at the site on Tuesday.

Several Kenya Wildlife Service and police recovery officers were hit by high altitude sickness while scouring the area for human remains and pieces of the twin-engine plane.

Meanwhile, the US government has commended Nairobi for responding swiftly to the accident on the snow-covered peak.

"The US government is happy with the manner Kenya responded to the accident," Edward Monster, deputy consul in charge of US citizens' affairs in Kenya, told AFP at Mount Kenya on Tuesday.

- AFX