Cameroon Airlines Flight 3701 crashes on approach to Douala International Airport in Douala, Cameroon, killing 71 of the 76 people on board.
Cameroon Airlines Flight 3701
Cameroon Airlines Flight 3701 was an air accident that occurred on 3 December 1995. The Boeing 737-200, registration TJ-CBE, crashed after it lost control near Douala, Cameroon. On its second approach to Douala International Airport, power was lost to one engine. The accident killed 71 passengers and crew. Five people survived injured.
Douala International Airport
Douala International Airport is an international airport located in Douala, the largest city in Cameroon and the capital of Cameroon's Littoral Region. With its 4 terminals and an average of 1.5 million passengers and 50,000 tonnes of freight per year, it is the country's busiest airport. The airport is managed and partly owned (34%) by the company Aeroport du Cameroon (ADC) which also manages all other 13 airports on Cameroonian soil.
Douala
Douala is the largest city in Cameroon and its economic capital. It is also the capital of Cameroon's Littoral Region. It was home to Central Africa's largest port, now being replaced by Kribi port. It has the country’s major international airport, Douala International Airport (DLA). It is the commercial and economic capital of Cameroon and the entire CEMAC region comprising Gabon, Congo, Chad, Equatorial Guinea, Central African Republic and Cameroon. Consequently, it handles most of the country's major exports, such as oil, cocoa and coffee, timber, metals and fruits. As of 2023, the city and its surrounding area had an estimated population of 5,066,000. The city sits on the estuary of Wouri River and its climate is tropical.
Cameroon
Cameroon, officially the Republic of Cameroon, is a country in Central Africa. It shares boundaries with Nigeria to the west and north, Chad to the northeast, the Central African Republic to the east, and Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, and the Republic of the Congo to the south. Its coastline lies on the Bight of Biafra, part of the Gulf of Guinea, and the Atlantic Ocean. Due to its strategic position at the crossroads between West Africa and Central Africa, it has been categorized as being in both geostrategic locations. Cameroon's population of nearly 31 million people speak 250 native languages, in addition to the national tongues of English and French. Early inhabitants of the territory included the Sao civilisation around Lake Chad and the Baka hunter-gatherers in the southeastern rainforest. Portuguese explorers reached the coast in the 15th century and named the area Rio dos Camarões, which became Cameroon in English. Fulani soldiers founded the Adamawa Emirate in the north in the 19th century, and various ethnic groups of the west and northwest established powerful chiefdoms and fondoms.