Body of victim of Airlink crash flown home

The body of Kenneth Rossen, an American passenger on board Airlink flight 200, which crashed at the runway of the Kotoka International Airport, has been flown back home.

The deceased's daughter, Megan Rossen, who survived the crash, an official of the 37 Military Hospital as well as family members, who flew in on Wednesday night, accompanied the body. According to a US Embassy official in Ghana, Mr. Rossen, a former Peace Corps, was on holidays in the north with his daughter. He said family members arrived on Wednesday night and accompanied the body on board a Ghana Airways flight back to the US. On Monday, June 5, the Airlink plane, a Fokker 27, on an internal flight from Tamale, crash-landed at the threshold of the runway of the Kotoka International Airport. Six persons, including an American and a Swiss, died while 46 others survived. Meanwhile the body of the Swiss citizen, Madam Lanz, is still at the mortuary. According to an official of the Swiss Embassy in Accra, they are waiting for a word from family members in Switzerland before taking any further action. Madam Lanz worked with Ghana Institute of Literary and Bible Translation (GILBT).

In another development, Professor Kwaku Danso-Boafo, Minister for Health, on Wednesday visited victims of Airlink air crash at the 37 Military Hospital and donated items worth two million cedis to the authorities.

The items, which include X’ray films, surgical gloves and drugs, are to assist the hospital carry out its activities efficiently. Prof. Danso-Boafo said the ministry would continue to offer logistics and support during and after emergencies to the Hospital. He congratulated the staff for the part they played when the disaster occurred last Monday morning. Brigadier Daniel Twum, Commanding Officer of the Hospital, who took the Minister round, said some of the victims are responding to treatment. However, he said, "We are still concerned about the conditions of others". He did not elaborate. Brigadier Twum said one leg of a victim has been amputated while three of the victims have been discharged. "We hope that by the end of the week a lot of them would be discharged." Airlink Flight 200, carrying 52 passengers on an internal flight from Tamale crashed at the Kotoka International Airport in pouring rain killing six people. A nine-member board of enquiry headed by Mr. Alex Sam, a retired pilot and former managing Director of Ghana Airways, has been set up to investigate the cause of the crash.