Fog, thick forest and an unexplained silence from an emergency transponder hampered search efforts Sunday as rescuers combed a remote area for a Kenya-bound flight that crashed with 114 people on board.

A Kenyan Airways official said at a news conference in Nairobi that the company's plane had stopped emitting signals after an initial distress call, though an automatic device should have kept up emissions for another two days.

The silence complicated an already difficult rescue mission. Wreckage has yet to be spotted. Rescuers had suspended the search because of heavy rains late Saturday. The rains subsided by daybreak, but fog persisted.

Sunday worshippers said prayers for those aboard at Kenyan churches, including Nairobi's Anglican cathedral.

The jet bound for the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, went down early Saturday near Lolodorf, about 90 miles southeast of the coastal city of Douala, where it had taken off after midnight, said Alex Bayeck, a regional communications officer.

There was no word on survivors, Bayeck said by telephone Saturday en route to the crash site.

On Saturday, search planes flew over the forested area where the airliner gave off a distress signal, but no wreckage has been spotted.

The search continued on the ground into the night, but helicopters could not operate effectively in the dark, said Jean Francois Villong, a local official coordinating the rescue effort. The helicopters would start again Sunday morning, he said, and more rescue workers including security forces were expected. Much of Saturday's searching was done by volunteers from local villages, he said.

Relatives and colleagues of those aboard were making their way to the remote area, which has few roads and is dotted by small villages. Some expressed a willingness to search themselves but acknowledged they did not know how to begin in the tough conditions.

Infrastructure is poor in Cameroon's interior, with much of the area being searched only accessible by dirt tracks that turn to impassable mud in the rainy season. The country of 17 million on Africa's western coast has oil reserves and lush farmland but many of its citizens remain poor subsistence farmers.

Residents in the area reported hearing a "large boom" during the previous night, Bayeck said, and some people said they saw a flash of fire that looked markedly different from lightning.

Close to a dozen ambulances stood ready in Lolodorf on Saturday, and a handful of family members of passengers gathered in the city center. Some said they had traveled as far as 250 miles in tough conditions that day.

Boeing has said the plane was equipped with an emergency transmitter that sends out an automatic locator signal when there is a rapid change in velocity. The transmitter generally activates upon impact in crashes, and can also be turned on by the crew.

Naikuni said the plane, which was almost new, took off an hour late because of rain. Douala airport officials confirmed thunderstorms at the time of takeoff, but said that was unlikely to have been the sole cause of the accident.

The Boeing 737-800 was carrying 114 people, including 105 passengers from at 27 countries, Kenyan airline officials said. A Nairobi-based Associated Press correspondent, Anthony Mitchell, was believed aboard. Mitchell had been on assignment in the region for the past week.

The flight departed Douala at 12:05 a.m. and was to have arrived in Nairobi at 6:15 a.m. The flight originated in Ivory Coast and stopped in Cameroon to pick up more passengers, the airline said.

The Douala-Nairobi flight runs several times a week and commonly is used as an intermediary flight to Europe and the Middle East. Kenya Airways — considered one of the safest airlines in Africa — said most passengers were planning to transfer to ongoing flights in Nairobi.

The U.S. National Transportation Safety Board said it was sending a team to assist Cameroon in its investigation of the crash.

Boeing's Proulx said there have not been any safety concerns with Chicago-based Boeing's fleet of 737-800s. About 2,000 737-800s are in use around the world.

The last crash of an international Kenya Airways flight was on Jan. 30, 2000, when Flight 431 was taking off from Abidjan, Ivory Coast, on its way to Nairobi. Investigators blamed a faulty alarm and pilot error for that crash, which killed 169 people.

PHOTO CAPTION

A worker at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport in Nairobi watches news on the missing Kenya airways flight in Cameroon May 5, 2007. (Reuters)

AP