UK team to aid air crash families

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UK officials are expected to arrive in Cameroon to assist the families of five Britons feared dead on an aircraft which crashed into a swamp.

The Foreign Office has named the British passengers as married Adam and Sarah Stewart, Anthony Mitchell, Stuart Claisse and Gordon Wright.

The wreckage of the Kenyan Airways Boeing 737-800 with 114 people on board was found after a 40 hour search.

There is no evidence that anyone survived the crash so far.

Only small pieces of the wreckage have been recovered and search teams hope to follow the trail of debris to find the main fuselage on Monday.

British officials will initially be based in Cameroon's capital Yaounde, and will wait for the go ahead locally before visiting the crash site.

Consular teams will liaise with relatives of the Britons on board the crashed aircraft.

Kenya Airways said: "At this time, search and rescue operations are in progress and we have no confirmed information about survivors or any possible casualties."

Reported missing

The six-month-old aircraft crashed in a mangrove swamp at midnight on Saturday 12 miles south-east of Douala, where it had taken off.

Anthony had contacted his family before boarding the flight to let them know he was headed home Kathleen CarrollAP executive editor

Contact with Flight KQ507 was lost by air traffic control shortly after take-off at 0005 local time (0105 GMT). It was due to arrive in Nairobi at 0615 (0315 GMT).

The flight originated in Ivory Coast and was reported missing on Saturday after it failed to arrive in Kenya.

People from at least 23 different nationalities were on board, according Kenya Airways.

Journalist concern

Anthony Mitchell was a Nairobi-based journalist working for news agency Associated Press (AP).

He had been on assignment in the Cameroon region for the past week and contacted his family before boarding the flight to say he was heading home. It is understood he has family in London.

He was expelled from Ethiopia in January 2006 after being accused of portraying the country in a bad light in his reports for AP.

AP executive editor Kathleen Carroll said: "Anthony had contacted his family before boarding the flight to let them know he was headed home. We hope for the best."