Plane Crashes into Cameroonian Forest

A passenger plane carrying 11 people has crashed into a forest in central Cameroon.

Per reports, the plane, which was chartered by a private company, the Cameroon Oil Transportation Company, was flying from Yaounde Nsimalen International Airport to Belabo on Wednesday, 11 May.

However, air traffic controllers lost radio contact with the aircraft; it later crashed into a forest near Nanga Eboko, which is located about 150 kilometres northeast of the country’s capital, Yaounde.

The make and type of the plane has yet to be made public, while the number of survivors – if any – are unknown.

Per a statement from the Ministry of Transport, a search-and-rescue operation to locate any survivors is currently underway.

This is Cameroon’s first major air travel catastrophe to occur in 15 years: in 2007, 114 people died when a Kenyan Airways aircraft crashed soon after take-off from Douala International Airport. A pilot-related error was declared as the cause behind the crash.