Spring Break
Yemeni plane with 153 crashes off Comoros Islands
AHMED AL-HAJ Associated Press Writers TOM MALITI Associated Press Writers
Issue date: 6/19/09 Section: AP NEWS
MORONI, Comoros (AP) - A Yemeni jetliner carrying 153 people crashed into the Indian Ocean as it came in for a landing during howling winds on the island nation of Comoros. There were conflicting reports about whether a child survived.
The crash came two years after aviation officials reported faults with the plane, an Airbus 310 flying the last leg of a journey from Paris and Marseille to Comoros, with a stop in Yemen to change planes. Most of the passengers were from Comoros, a former French colony. Sixty-six on board were French nationals.
Comoran and Yemeni officials said Tuesday that either a 14-year-old girl or a 5-year-old boy had survived. However, neither report could be immediately verified, nor could earlier reports that three bodies and some plane wreckage had been recovered.
Yemeni civil aviation deputy chief Mohammed Abdul Qader said the flight data recorder had not been found and it was too early to speculate on the cause of the crash. But, he said, the wind was 40 miles per hour (61 kph) as the plane was landing in the middle of the night.
"The weather was very bad," he said, adding the windy conditions were hampering rescue efforts.
The Yemenia plane was the second Airbus to crash into the sea this month. An Air France Airbus A330-200 crashed into the Atlantic Ocean on June 1, killing all 228 people on board, as it flew from Rio de Janeiro to Paris.
The Comoros is an archipelago of three main islands situated 1,800 miles (2,900 kilometers) south of Yemen, between Africa's southeastern coast and the island of Madagascar. It is a former French colony of 700,000 people.
In France, school vacations began this week and many on the plane were heading home to visit.
Gen. Bruno de Bourdoncle de Saint-Salvy, the senior commander for French forces in the southern Indian Ocean, said the Airbus 310 crashed in deep waters about 9 miles (14.5 kilometers) north of the Comoran coast and 21 miles (34 kilometers) from the Moroni airport.
The crash came two years after aviation officials reported faults with the plane, an Airbus 310 flying the last leg of a journey from Paris and Marseille to Comoros, with a stop in Yemen to change planes. Most of the passengers were from Comoros, a former French colony. Sixty-six on board were French nationals.
Comoran and Yemeni officials said Tuesday that either a 14-year-old girl or a 5-year-old boy had survived. However, neither report could be immediately verified, nor could earlier reports that three bodies and some plane wreckage had been recovered.
Yemeni civil aviation deputy chief Mohammed Abdul Qader said the flight data recorder had not been found and it was too early to speculate on the cause of the crash. But, he said, the wind was 40 miles per hour (61 kph) as the plane was landing in the middle of the night.
"The weather was very bad," he said, adding the windy conditions were hampering rescue efforts.
The Yemenia plane was the second Airbus to crash into the sea this month. An Air France Airbus A330-200 crashed into the Atlantic Ocean on June 1, killing all 228 people on board, as it flew from Rio de Janeiro to Paris.
The Comoros is an archipelago of three main islands situated 1,800 miles (2,900 kilometers) south of Yemen, between Africa's southeastern coast and the island of Madagascar. It is a former French colony of 700,000 people.
In France, school vacations began this week and many on the plane were heading home to visit.
Gen. Bruno de Bourdoncle de Saint-Salvy, the senior commander for French forces in the southern Indian Ocean, said the Airbus 310 crashed in deep waters about 9 miles (14.5 kilometers) north of the Comoran coast and 21 miles (34 kilometers) from the Moroni airport.
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