Yemen airliner crashes off Comoros with 153 aboard
A Yemeni Airbus A310 jet, carrying 153 people, crashed into stormy
seas as it came into land in the Comoros islands early Tuesday — the
second Airbus to crash in an ocean in less than a month.
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Child survivor found
Rescuers on Tuesday found a
child survivor of a Yemeni airliner that crashed off the
coast of the Indian Ocean archipelago of Comoros, a hospital
official said.
“A child was found alive. He
is now on a rescuers’ boat,” Ben Imani, a doctor at Moroni’s
main hospital told AFP. A Comoros Red Cross official
confirmed the rescue. MORONI, AFP |
Bodies and wreckage from the Yemenia airline flight were spotted in
the Indian Ocean near the island archipelago capital, Moroni, aviation
officials said.
A rescue operation was launched to try to find survivors. There were
142 passengers and 11 crew on the Yemenia airline flight which had
started in Paris early Monday and had made stops in Marseille, Sanaa and
Djibouti, an official with the carrier said.
France’s Transport Minister Dominique Bussereau said Yemenia was a
company “under surveillance” and that “numerous faults” had been
recorded on the jet involved.
The director of Moroni international airport, Hadji Ali, said the
control tower lost contact with Flight IY 626 just before it was due to
land and confirmed that there was bad weather.
French civil aviation officials said 66 passengers were French. Three
small babies were also among the passengers, officials said.
Rescue boats were sent to the scene and France sent two navy ships
and a plane from its nearby Indian Ocean territories to help. But the
stormy weather that the plane was going through when it disappeared from
radar screens also hampered the rescue.
Moroni, Tuesday, AFP
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