The Cameroonian transport minister has confirmed the death of all the 11 people on board during a plane crash in a forest in Cameroon on Wednesday, May 11.

State radio on Thursday reported that the nine passengers and two crew members of the propeller plane had died in the accident.

“The 11 occupants died, they have all been identified and recovered,” the Minister of Transport, Jean-Ernest Ngallé Bibehe, told journalists during a visit to the accident scene on Thursday evening.

In groups of two, gendarmes covered in sweat came out of the dense forest with the remains of the victims wrapped in white sheets, a journalist from AFP noted.

“There are mutilated bodies, others burned,” said a ministry official, who requested anonymity.

More than 200 villagers took part in the search for the bodies and debris, in addition to the gendarmes.

The two black boxes have been recovered and “they will shed light on the circumstances of this accident”, said Mr Bibehe.

“A strong wind was blowing before the crash, we believe that the bad weather conditions are at the origin of the accident,” said a policeman who requested anonymity.

The make of the plane has not been made public, but Cameroonian media report that it was a Dash 8-Q400, a turboprop aircraft made by Canadian company Bombardier.

The plane was carrying employees of COTCO and service companies from Yaoundé to a pumping station linked to the pipeline in Dompta, in the northeast.

Source: AFP