ABIDJAN, Ivory Coast -- A few shivering survivors were found amid scores of corpses floating in the waters off the Ivory Coast Monday morning, hours after a Kenya Airways jet carrying 179 people slammed into the Atlantic Ocean after takeoff.
Guided by spotlights from helicopters above, rescuers in boats scoured the nighttime waters for survivors. The cold ocean temperatures made it unlikely anyone could be alive after a few hours, officials said.At least 10 people survived. By late morning, 86 bodies had been brought to shore, rescue workers said.
The plane, an Airbus 310, took off at 9:08 p.m. Sunday into relatively clear skies. It was destined for Lagos, Nigeria, but crashed into the ocean after just one minute in the air, according to George Dapre Yao, the head of air traffic at the city's Felix Houphouet-Boigny Airport.
One Nigerian survivor who was plucked from the water said the plane was having problems immediately after takeoff.
"It wasn't quite balanced, and the next thing we knew we were in the water," Samuel Ogbada Adje said, wrapped in a blanket at Abidjan's port.
It wasn't clear what had gone wrong. Some witnesses said they heard two loud sounds, as if the plane or parts of it slapped the water twice.
Adje, who suffered a swollen eye, was propelled into the water by the force of the crash, he said. He and others waited at least two hours for rescuers.
"If they had come sooner, a lot of us would have been saved," he said angrily before being pushed into an ambulance and driven away.
But Lt. Col. Blaise Grah, an Ivorian firefighting official, defended the rescue.
"Two hours, we believe, is a reasonable time, given the materials that had to be gathered, the vastness of the ocean and the imprecise information we were given" about the location of the wreckage, he said.
Yao said Flight 431 was carrying 10 crew members, 167 adult passengers and two children. Kenya Airways, however, said the 179 people on board consisted of 168 passengers and 11 crew.
The flight originated Sunday as Flight 430 out of Nairobi, Kenya, and was to have landed in Lagos that afternoon. But because of bad weather, it went on to Abidjan, the Ivory Coast's main commercial city.
Airline officials declined to speculate on what caused the crash, but Kenya Airways technical director Steve Clarke, speaking in Nairobi, said "there were no technical problems of any significance."
Kenya Airways engineers and investigators were heading for the Ivory Coast and Nigeria later Monday to help in the investigation, Clarke said, along with Airbus engineers and French accident investigators.
Most of the passengers were believed to be Nigerians, he said, as the route is popular among Nigerians heading to Dubai for duty-free shopping.
Emmanuel Madu, a 33-year-old Nigerian businessman who had gone to Dubai to buy cellular phones to sell -- and who doesn't know how to swim -- found himself thrown into the water after the plane crashed.
"I've learned that human beings can survive even the worst trials," he said from his bed at Abidjan's PISAM hospital. He said he survived by flailing in the water, grabbing onto whatever he could and reaching his head up to gulp in air.
One American man was registered on the flight, the U.S. Embassy in Nairobi said. But it was not clear if he was among the survivors found clinging to the wreckage three or four miles offshore.
Officials said the survivors included three Nigerians, one Rwandan, a Gambian, a Kenyan, a Frenchman, and an Indian.
Clarke said working with two separate passenger manifests had led to delays in confirming who was on board.
"We know the process is going to be a little slow, and it is going to be painful," Clarke said. "But I think in respect to the families of the passengers' feelings, we have to ... consider them above all else."
Witnesses said the plane never appeared to get sufficient altitude as it crossed over the airport's wall and headed out over the ocean, just a few hundred yards away.
"I saw it take off," said an itinerant trader who identified himself as Alogouleta. "After it went over the wall, it was still very low. Then it hit the water. I heard the sound two times," as the plane hit the ocean.
But he heard no explosion and saw no flames, and the plane never veered in its course overhead, he said. There were mild winds at the time, and the temperature was 77 degrees.
Dozens of people, who live nearby or were praying in churches along the beach road, heard the plane crash into the water.
A few jumped into the water, but they were quickly driven back by the harsh surf.
Kenya Airways set up reception centers at Nairobi's Intercontinental Hotel for relatives and friends of passengers. Psychologists and crisis counselors were on hand.
"I have just learned that my brother is dead. I do not know what to do," said Ann Mwasi, whose 28-year-old brother, Vincent, was a Kenya Airways flight attendant. "We buried our mother last week. He had not rested. This was his first flight."
Sunday's crash was the first such disaster for Kenya Airways, which has been operating since 1977, Clarke said.
The Kenyan government retains a significant interest in its national carrier. KLM Royal Dutch Airlines is the company's largest shareholder with a 26 percent stake.
The A310-300 is a 202-seat, wide-bodied plane, Kenya Airways officials said. Airbus said the plane that crashed had accumulated about 58,000 flight hours in 15,000 flights and was delivered from the production line in September 1986.