Aircrash: 'All we can do is pray'
2007-05-06 22:35
Desmond Thompson, Christel Raubenheimer
Johannesburg and Nairobi - The wives of two South Africans who were on an ill-fated flight from Douala in Cameroon to Nairobi, Kenya, are living in hope that their husbands will be found on Monday.
Sapa reports that seven South Africans were among the passengers aboard the Kenya Airways 737-800 Boeing that left Douala in Cameroon, bound for Nairobi, Kenya.
They have been named as Charles January of Profert Trading, Gordon Wright of Chevron, Conrad van der Westhuizen, Danny Barnard and two employees of electrical firm ABB, Gerard Kanda and Cornelius Hermanus van der Westhuizen, and Hans Peter Weder, sub-contractor with the firm.
Top MTN staff aboard
Also aboard were staff of the MTN Group. They are MTN Cameroon CEO Campbell Utton, Cameroon CFO Sarah Stewart and her husband, Adam James Stewart, company secretary Patrick Njamfa and network engineer Patrice Enam.
They were travelling to South Africa on business.
Sapa reported from Johannesburg that the wreckage of the Kenya Airways plane had been found, according to the South African Department of Foreign Affairs on Sunday.
Department spokesperson Ronnie Mamoepa said the Cameroonian government had officially confirmed that the wreckage of the plane had been found a 10-minute flight from Douala.
Mamoepa said rescue operations on Saturday had been hampered by bad weather, but resumed on Sunday morning with help from France, Britain and America.
On Sunday night about 20:20, Kenyan Airways spokesperson Glenn Lewington told Sapa the search had been called off for the evening and "nothing has been found".
He said the search would continue "first thing in the morning".
Wife flew to Kenya
The Kenya Airways flight KQ 507 crashed with 114 on board, on Friday night.
Beeld reported that the wives of two of the South African men were hoping on Sunday that their husbands would be found alive and well on Monday.
Estrelita January arrived in Kenya on Sunday to search for news of her husband, Charles, in the hope that he was still alive.
"It's the uncertainty that's the worst. I want to know what's going on," a tearful Estrelita told Beeld shortly after her arrival in Nairobi, the Kenyan capital.
With her was Mark Wingrove, a family friend who grew up with Charles.
He said: "We're like brothers. It's terrible to think that injured people are lying somewhere in the jungle without help."
Estrelita said: "I believe Charles is still alive. We have a boy, Connor (16 months), who's crazy about his daddy."
Her husband is the head of Profert Trading, a South African fertiliser firm.
She and her son moved from the Cape to Potchefstroom recently, to be nearer her husband's place of employment.
Estrelita and Wingrove were scheduled to fly to Cameroon on Monday, in the hope that Charles may have been admitted to a hospital there.
Asked everybody to pray for him
One of the three employees from ABB South Africa on the flight was Kerneels van der Westhuizen, 33, an electrical engineer from Eldoraigne in Centurion.
His wife, Maryke, was trying to console their son, 20-month-old Marco, on Sunday.
"They're busy looking for your daddy," said Maryke, wiping the tears from her face while Marco hid in his mom's lap.
"I've let everyone know, so that we can all pray together. That's all we can do for now," she said.
On Sunday morning, there was still the faint hope that her husband may have missed the flight, but even that was crushed when it was confirmed that his name was on the passenger list.
Maryke said: "The worst was the news on television (on Sunday) which said that 36 hours had passed since the crash.
"They said that if anyone had survived the impact, their chance of making it now, was dwindling."
The Van der Westhuizens' baby girl was stillborn a few years ago. Now, her husband is missing.
"I've had my share of drama. It just feels as if these things don't want to end," said Maryke.
Husband due to graduate on Tuesday
While she was on the way to the airport on Saturday to collect her husband she heard something on the radio about Cameroon and an aircraft, she said.
"I knew immediately that something was wrong."
To cap it all, her husband was to have graduated with a BTech degree in electrical engineering from Tshwane University of Technology in Pretoria on Tuesday.
They chose clothes for him last week, especially for the occasion.