Kenya Airway Crash: Search for Corpses Intensifies

Measures to recover corpses from the Kenya airway crash from the site in Mbanga Pongo has been stepped up. Three other mobile generators have been added to the existing two which were already at the site to drain water from the mangrove swamp. This has taken the mobile generators to five which are intended to do the job simultaneously pumping out water from the swampy area. Since Monday, rescue workers used the mobile generator to pump away water to expose more of the wreckage and body parts which have been covered by mud and they retrieved one of the plane's black boxes.
It was reported that since Monday, that the search for corpses of the victims started, each time water is drained from the area, it fills up again immediately. It is expected that with the intensification they would succeed in their mission to drain all the standing water, so that they can recover the rest of the human body parts which had sank in the mud. So far 92 body parts have been discovered and the crash site gets more and more a threat to human health. Rescuers have to dress in a white polyester pinafore, cover their nostrils and mouth to prevent any infection. After the return from the site everybody’s legs, hands and shoes are disinfected. The pieces of decomposed human flesh are mixed with mud giving the area a pungent odour which may be dangerous to health. Since the search began either one or two corpses were found complete with all their body parts. The other corpses are found either with no leg or hand or just the legs and so on. The health officials still have a task to identify a corpse with all its body parts. It was said a DNA test has to be carried out in order to be able to put the corpses together and their different body parts. Inhabitants of the area have been blocked from getting to the area because of the fear of the fact that they might develop an infection owing to the fact that they may get to the site without protecting themselves. Besides this, others may want to get to the area to steal, as most of them who went and stole money, cell phones, and jewelleries from the dead victims, were caught by the gendarmes. It was reported also that a villager got drowned in the mud when he went in search of some dead bodies to steal. His body was removed and given to his family.
In the meantime, while the search is still going on, the government has put in place three companies to create and ameliorate the existing road that leads to the site. Razel road Construction Company and a Chinese company have their caterpillars working on the road that leads to the site. It is 10kilometres from the highway into Mbanga Pongo, where the gendarmes have build a make shift post. And from there to the site of the crash it is three kilometres on foot to the crash site because it is not motor-able. The government is trying to ensure a road is ameliorated so that cars can get right to the site.

Effa Tambenkongho