Kenya Airways Flight 431

Kenya Airways Flight 431

5Y-BEN, the aircraft involved in the accident, on final approach to London Heathrow Airport in 1994.
Accident summary
Date	30 January 2000
Summary	Electrical fault combined with pilot error
Site	Off the coast of Côte d'Ivoire
Passengers	169
Crew	10
Fatalities	169
Injuries (non-fatal)	10
Survivors	10
Aircraft type	Airbus A310-304
Aircraft name	Harambee Star
Operator	Kenya Airways
Registration	5Y-BEN
Flight origin	Félix Houphouët-Boigny Int'l Airport Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire
Stopover	Murtala Muhammed Int'l Airport Lagos, Nigeria
Destination	Jomo Kenyatta Int'l Airport Nairobi, Kenya

Kenya Airways Flight 431 was an international scheduled Abidjan–Lagos–Nairobi passenger service, operated with an Airbus A310-300, that crashed into the sea off the coast of Côte d'Ivoire on 30 January 2000, shortly after takeoff from Félix Houphouët-Boigny International Airport, Abidjan. There were 179 people on board, of whom 169 were passengers. Only ten people survived the accident, which was the first fatal one for Kenya Airways.

The aircraft involved in the accident was an Airbus A310-304, registration 5Y-BEN, named Harambee Star. With c/n 426, the airframe entered service with Kenya Airways in September 1986 (1986-09). The aircraft had logged 58,115 flight hours at the time of the accident. It was equipped with a twin-GE CF6-80C2A2 powerplant. The port and starboard engine's serial numbers were 690,120 and 690,141, respectively; before the crash, they had accumulated 43,635 and 41,754 flight hours, respectively.

The flight was under the command of 44-year-old Captain Paul Muthee, an experienced officer who had logged 11,636 flying hours at the time of the accident, 1,664 on an Airbus A310. He qualified as an A310 pilot on 10 August 1986, and also held ratings for Boeing 737-300, Boeing 737-200, Fokker 50 and Fokker 27, as well as various small aircraft. The first officer was 43-year-old Lazaro Mutumbi Mulli, who had 7,295 hours of flight time, 5,768 in an A310. Both pilots had performed four landings and four takeoffs on the type at Abidjan Airport; their last takeoff from the airport took place on the day of the accident.