Metzel was a specialist on west Africa. The plane broke up on impact.
News reports indicate that it was nearly two hours before rescuers arrived at the scene.
They were hampered by a lack of rescue equipment and imprecise information. Most of the dead are Nigerian. The flight originated in Nairobi, Kenya, and was headed for Lagos, but because of bad weather went instead to Abidjan, the main commercial city of the Ivory Coast. Dan, John, Sarah and Jeff. The Metzels' careers were spent with the Presbyterian Church of Congo as evangelistic missionaries.