Yemen A310 crashes in Indian Ocean

deromalley

http://www.smh.com.au/world/plane-crashes-in-indian-ocean-with-150-people-on-board-20090630-d37v.html

Gazza22

I just seen it on the news. Shocking stuff to have another fatal crash so soon after Air France. It was on-route to paris too.

BBC wrote:

A Yemeni airliner with 153 people on board has crashed in the Indian Ocean near the Comoros archipelago.

Some bodies have been recovered, a Yemeni aviation official said. It is not clear whether there were survivors.

The Airbus 310 flight IY626, operated by Yemeni carrier Yemenia Air, was flying from the Yemeni capital Sanaa.

Reports say it was due in the Comoros capital Moroni at about 0230 (0030 BST). Most of the passengers were believed to be travelling from Paris.

Airline officials said there were 142 passengers, including three infants, and 11 crew on board, adding that most of the passengers were Comoran or French.

"The weather conditions were rough; strong wind and high seas," official Mohammad al-Sumairi told Reuters news agency.

The three Comoros islands are about 300km (190 miles) northwest of Madagascar in the Mozambique channel.

The exact location of the crash was not immediately known.

But a civil aviation official told the BBC that the plane was probably a few kilometres from Moroni, on the island of Njazidja (Grande Comore), when it crashed.

There were unconfirmed reports that it had attempted to land but aborted the landing. It was not seen again.

A search is under way, involving two French military aircraft and a French vessel, the director general of Moroni International Airport, Hadji Madi Ali, told Reuters.

pclancy

deromalley please post a new thread, especially one about a crash, with a decent title from now on.

elmolesto

According to the french newspaper le monde there is at least 1 survivor.

Run_to_da_hills

elmolesto wrote: »

According to the french newspaper le monde there is at least 1 survivor.

Most people on Boards parle Englise


http://news.sky.com/skynews/Home/World-News/Yemen-Airbus-A310-300-Crashes-In-Comoros-Archipelago-In-Indian-Ocean-With-153-People-On-Board/Article/200906415323909?lpos=World_News_News_Your_Way_Region_5&lid=NewsYourWay_ARTICLE_15323909_Yemen_Airbus_A310-300_Crashes_In_Comoros_Archipelago_In_Indian_Ocean_With_153_People_On_Board

joey54

It never rains, it pours. Another tragic accident. Lets hope people's confidence in the airbus isn't knocked yet again. Accidents happen, its just unfortunate they've been so close together.

Thoughts with the passengers, crew and their families.

L.O.F.T

http://www.avherald.com/h?article=41befd4e&opt=0

Sully

Yemen jet crashes in Indian Ocean
The Yemenia Airbus 310 that crashed - photo Air Team Images
The plane has been found to have had a number of faults

A Yemeni airliner with more than 150 people on board has crashed in the Indian Ocean near the Comoros islands.

Some bodies have been found and a child rescued alive, officials from the carrier, Yemenia, said.

The Airbus 310 flight IY626 was flying from the Yemeni capital Sanaa, but many passengers on the plane began their journey in France.

The cause of the crash is not clear. A French minister said faults were found on the plane during a check in 2007.

"The A310 in question was inspected in 2007 by the DGAC [French transport authorities] and they noticed a certain number of faults. Since then the plane had not returned to France," Transport Minister Dominique Bussereau was quoted as telling French TV.

RECENT AIR CRASHES
1 June: An Air France Airbus plane travelling from Rio de Janeiro to Paris disappears in the Atlantic with 228 people on board
20 May: An Indonesian army C-130 Hercules transport plane crashes into a village on eastern Java, killing at least 97 people
12 February: A plane crashes into a house in Buffalo, New York, killing all 49 people on board and one person on the ground

Timeline of air disasters

"The company was not on the black list but was subject to stricter checks on our part, and was due to be interviewed shortly by the European Union's safety committee."

Mr Bussereau had earlier told French media that bad weather was the likely cause.

See a map of the plane's route

The European Union Transport Commissioner Antonio Tajani said he would propose setting up a worldwide blacklist of airlines deemed to be unsafe. The EU already has its own list.

Reports say the plane was due in the Comoros capital Moroni at about 0230 (2230GMT on Monday). Most of the passengers had travelled to Sanaa from Paris or Marseille on a different aircraft.

The flight on to Moroni was also thought to have made a stop in Djibouti.

There were more than 150 people on board, including three babies and 11 crew.

Anxious relatives of passengers wait at Paris airport

An airport source told AFP news agency that 66 of the passengers were French, although many are thought to have dual French-Comoran citizenship.

This is the second air tragedy this month involving large numbers of French citizens.

On 1 June an Air France Airbus 330 travelling from Rio de Janeiro to Paris plunged into the Atlantic, killing all 228 people on board.

'Aborted landing'

A search is under way, with the French military assisting with the operation.

French military personnel leave Reunion to join rescue operation
French military are assisting with the search operation

Officials told AFP that wreckage from the plane, an oil slick and bodies had been spotted in the water a few kilometres from Moroni, on the island of Njazidja (Grande Comore).

"The weather conditions were rough; strong wind and high seas," Yemenia official Mohammad al-Sumairi told Reuters news agency.

The BBC's Will Ross, in Kenya, says that given the fact the crash happened during the night and in the sea, the chances of finding any survivors are slim.

The three Comoros islands are about 300km (190 miles) northwest of Madagascar in the Mozambique channel.

A resident near the airport told the BBC about 100 people were trying to get into the airport to find out more information, but without much success.

The airline Yemenia is 51% owned by the Yemeni government and 49% by the Saudi government.

In 1996, a hijacked Ethiopian airliner came down in the same area - most of the 175 passengers and crew were killed.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/8125664.stm

Sad to see reports were noted a year ago and the plan was still flying around. Guess thats normal enough though.

lord lucan

Quick work on locating the black box recorder,hopefully a quick recovery and processing to get some idea of what happened.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/8127947.stm

Sully

The "toddler" became 14 yesterday and 12 today. Jesus christ, poor job by the press.

The blackbox wasnt found either, it was a distress beacon.

Sully

A 12-year-old girl thought to be the only survivor of the Yemenia air crash has told how she was thrown into the ocean and watched her aircraft sink.

Baya Bakari told her father at a hospital in Yemen that she heard voices around her in the Indian Ocean, but could not see anyone.

She was found clinging to debris some two hours after the crash.

The plane, going to the Comoros Islands from Yemen's capital Sanaa, came down in bad weather with 153 on board.


I kissed them both, then my wife turned around, she looked at me and she waved... For my wife it was the last time
Father of survivor Baya Bakari

'Miracle' of Comoros crash girl
Are children more likely to survive?
Yemen airline's safety questioned
In pictures: Yemeni plane crash
How to survive a plane crash

Many of the passengers were travelling to the Comoros Islands but had begun their journey in Paris or Marseille on another jet operated by Yemenia, the national airline of Yemen, before boarding flight IY626 in Sanaa.

Find out more about the black box

The EU and France have both said they highlighted safety concerns over Yemenia planes and said the jet that crashed had not flown into EU airspace since 2007.

But no official cause for the crash has yet been found. Earlier on Wednesday a French government minister in the Comoros capital, Moroni, said that a detected signal thought to be from one of the plane's "black box" flight recorders was in fact a distress beacon.

'True miracle'

Ms Bakari, who lives in Paris with her family, remains in hospital in Moroni being treated for injuries said to include a fractured collarbone and burns. French officials said late on Wednesday that she was 12 years old, contradicting earlier reports she was 14.

Speaking from Paris, her father Kassim Bakari said she was thrown from the plane as it hit the water. He said she clearly recalled the chaos of her time in the water.

map of comoros islands

See large map and timeline
Ties that bind: Comoros and France

"She said, 'Papa, we saw the plane going down in the water. I was in the dark, I couldn't see a thing.

"'[And] on top of that daddy, I can't swim well and I held on to something, but don't really know what'.

"She's a very timid girl, I never thought she would escape like that," he said, describing her as "fragile" and barely able to swim.

Mr Bakari recalled how he said goodbye to his wife and daughter at the airport as they headed to the Comoros.

"I kissed them both, then my wife turned around, she looked at me and she waved, and my daughter she didn't do anything, and that was the last time I saw my wife alive, because my daughter... I will see her again I hope , but for my wife it was the last time."

French officials in Moroni praised the girl's courage. International Co-operation Minister Alain Joyandet described her rescue as a "true miracle".

"She is a courageous young girl. She really showed an absolutely incredible physical and moral strength."

An uncle, Ali Abdou, who visited the girl in hospital in Moroni, told the BBC she did not yet know that her mother had died.

She was scheduled to be transferred back to Paris for treatment later on Wednesday, he added.

"She is conscious, speaking well, [she] is ok. She was joking, she was chatting, we laughed together.

"It's a miracle. It was God's will."

'No black box'

Earlier, a French government minister reversed earlier claims that one of the plane's black box recorders had been found.
Angry Comorans demonstrate against Yemenia in Marseille
Comorans in France are angry at Yemenia's safety record

Mr Joyandet, the French minister in Moroni, said signals picked up by rescuers came from a distress beacon. Most aircraft have a flight data recorder and a cockpit voice recorder.

"The Transall (military plane) that picked up an acoustic signal did not, despite what was said this morning, detect the beacons of the flight recorders, but rather what appear to be its distress beacons," Mr Joyandet said in Moroni, the Comoros capital, AFP news agency reported.

There were 66 French nationals among the passengers. Most of the rest were Comorans, and most had flown on a different Yemenia aircraft from Paris or Marseille before boarding flight IY626 in Sanaa.

A French vessel has been sent to the site to start recovery operations, she added, and French rescue teams are involved in the search for survivors.

However, no-one from the plane has been confirmed alive apart from Baya Bakari, and rescuers say chances of finding more survivors are slim.

Angry protest

The French transport ministry said on Tuesday that the Airbus 310 plane which crashed had been banned from France because of "irregularities".
The Yemenia Airbus 310 that crashed - photo Air Team Images
France said the plane had been banned from its airspace

But Yemenia responded by criticising "false information and speculation about technical problems" on the plane.

Several Comoran expatriates angry with what they see as the poor state of the company's aircraft tried to stop passengers from checking in for another Yemenia flight leaving Paris Charles de Gaulle airport for Sanaa.

About 60 people failed to check in, reports said, but it was not clear how many did so as a result of the protest.

The crash was the second involving an Airbus aircraft in recent weeks. On 1 June an Air France Airbus 330 travelling from Rio de Janeiro to Paris plunged into the Atlantic, killing all 228 people on board.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/8129398.stm

So she thinks people were alive when they hit the water. Shame really, that they survived the crash but died in the ocean due to rescue services taking time to arrive.