MORONI: Seorang kanak-kanak berusia lima tahun diselamatkan dari Lautan Hindi di luar pesisir pulau Comoros selepas sebuah pesawat Airbus A310-300 Yemenia dengan membawa 153 orang terhempas berhampiran kawasan berkenaan awal pagi semalam.

"Seorang doktor dari hospital tentera yang bersama dalam operasi menyelamat menghubungi hospital Mitsamiouli untuk memaklumkan seorang kanak-kanak terselamat," kata Halidi Ahmed Abdou, seorang doktor di pusat perubatan yang dibuka untuk menerima mangsa yang selamat.

Pengarah lapangan antarabangsa di Moroni, ibu negara Comoros, Hadji Madi Ali, memberitahu radio tempatan seorang kanak-kanak lima tahun diselamatkan dan lima mayat ditemui.

Sebelum itu, agensi berita China, Xinhua melaporkan mayat dan serpihan dipercayai daripada pesawat Yemenia itu ditemui kira-kira 8 hingga 12 kilometer di luar pulau Comoros.

"Sebuah pesawat yang menjalankan kaji selidik menemui sebahagian serpihan pesawat berhampiran lokasi kejadian," kata pegawai kanan Agensi Keselamatan Udara di Afrika dan Madagascar (Asecna), Ibrahim Kassim di Moroni.

Seramai 153 orang, termasuk 11 anak kapal berada di dalam pesawat berkenaan yang dalam perjalanan dari ibu negara Yaman, Sanaa ke Moroni sebelum hilang dari pemantauan radar pagi semalam.

Laporan rasmi dari Comoros berkata 120 daripada penumpang adalah penduduk negara kepulauan itu yang pulang dari Perancis, manakala 20 lagi adalah rakyat negara Eropah itu.

Bagaimanapun, Xinhua, memetik lama web Perancis, www.jdd.fr, sebagai berkata 66 rakyat negara Eropah itu berada dalam penerbangan berkenaan.

Pesawat Yemenia milik kerajaan Yaman itu hampir mendarat di kepulauan Comoros ketika terhempas.

"Pesawat berkenaan terhempas dan kami masih belum mengetahui tempat sebenarnya. Kami berpendapat ia di kawasan Mitsamiouli. Ada 153 penumpang di dalamnya," kata Naib Presiden Comoros, Idi Nadhoim kepada Reuters dari lapangan terbang di Moroni.

Seorang jurucakap Lapangan Terbang Paris berkata, satu penerbangan Yemenia meninggalkan Paris kelmarin sebelum ia mendarat di Yaman dan kemudian berlepas ke Moroni.

Ibrahim dari Asecna berkata bot tentera serta awam sudah memulakan operasi mencari.

"Kami berpendapat kemalangan berlaku pada laluan pendaratan pesawat berkenaan," katanya.

"Keadaan cuaca benar-benar tidak baik. Keadaan laut bergelora."

"Ada kemalangan di laut," kata seorang pegawai yang menjawab telefon di pejabat Yemenia di Moroni. Beliau bagaimanapun tidak mengulas lanjut. Manakala seorang pegawai syarikat penerbangan itu di Yaman enggan mengulas.

Menteri Dalam Negeri, Hamid Bourhane memberitahu bahawa tentera menghantar bot laju kecil ke kawasan antara perkampungan Ntsaoueni dan lapangan terbang terbabit.

Sumber| Berita Harian; Reuters

Yemenia Airbus crash: Bodies found, aircraft was faulty

New details have emerged about the Yemenia-Yemen Airways plane that crashed Tuesday with 153 people on board.

The plane, which crashed in the Indian Ocean, carried 142 passengers and 11 crew. Nationalities included 66 French plus people from Canada, Comoros, Ethiopia, Indonesia, Morocco, Palestine, the Philippines and Yemen. There were three infants, according to news reports.

A 5e-year-old has been found alive, and five bodies have also been found, Reuters is reporting.

AP, however, reports that that, "there were conflicting reports about whether a child survived. ...Comoran and Yemeni officials said Tuesday that either a 14-year-old girl or a 5-year-old boy had survived, but neither report could be immediately verified."

The crashed plane was an Airbus A310-300. It was flying from Sana'a, Yemen to Moroni in the Comoro Islands in bad weather. (See map below.)

French safety investigators along with advisers from Airbus are heading to the crash site, according to BEA, the French investigation authority that is also looking into the June 1 crash of Air France Flight 447.

French officials had determined in 2007 that the plane was faulty, Reuters says, quoting French Transport Minister Dominique Bussereau. But Yemen's transport minister disputed that, saying that the plane was checked in May under Airbus supervision.

Yemenia: "Flying cattle trucks"

From AP:

Stephane Salord, the Comoros' honorary consul in Marseille, called Yemenia's aircraft "flying cattle trucks."

"This A310 is a plane that has posed problems for a long time, it is absolutely inadmissible that this airline Yemenia played with the lives of its passengers this way," he said.

"Some people stand the whole way to Moroni," said Mohamed Ali, a Comoran who went to Yemenia's headquarters in Paris to try to get more information.

Thoue Djoumbe, a 28-year-old woman who lives in the French town of Fontainebleau, said she and others had complained about the airline for years.

"It's a lottery when you travel to Comoros," said Djoumbe. "We've organized boycotts, we've told the Comoran community not to fly on Yemenia Airways because they make a lot of money off of us and meanwhile the conditions on the planes are disastrous."

About the plane:

Airbus A310-300 planes seat 220 passengers in a standard two-class configuration. The first A310-300 entered service in December 1985. As of May, 214 A310s were in service with 41 operators.

Airbus has updated its crisis page to say that the company "regrets to confirm that an A310-300 operated by Yemenia (Yemen Airways) was involved in an accident shortly after 01.50 (local time) near the Comoro Islands. The aircraft was operating a scheduled service, flight number IY626, from Sana'a (Yemen) to Moroni (Comoro Islands)."

The crashed aircraft was delivered from the production line in 1990 and had been operated by Yemenia starting in October 1999. It carried two Pratt and Whitney engines.

The A310-300 parts are assembled in northern France, Germany, the UK and Spain. Final assembly is in Toulouse, France.

From Reuters:

The EU suspended permission for Yemenia to maintain EU-registered planes in February after it failed a set of audit inspections, the EU's aviation safety agency told Reuters in Brussels.

The move would not have affected the doomed Airbus A310 plane since it was registered in Yemen. But it provides further evidence of European concerns over the airline's operations after the EU Commission said the plane which crashed had sparked an EU inquiry two years ago.

The EU's Transport Commissioner Antonio Tajani said it would contact Yemenia to see what had happened and planned to propose a global blacklist of airlines deemed unsafe.

A separate Reuters story says that the crashed plane was owned by International Lease Finance Corp.

Credit to | seattlepi.nwsource.com

Girl Survivor Found After Ocean Jet Crash

A teenage girl has been rescued from a packed passenger jet that crashed in the Indian Ocean near the Comoros archipelago.

According to the Red Cross, the 14 year old is now being treated in a hospital in Moroni.

Three bodies were also retrieved, along with debris from the plane - but no other survivors have so far been recovered.

The Yemenia Airways Airbus 310 crashed during strong winds with 153 people on board including the crew of 11 Yemenis.

Most of the passengers were from Comoros, returning from Paris. Sixty-six on board were French nationals.

The tragedy has come two years after aviation officials reported faults with the plane on the last leg of a flight from France to Comoros, a former French colony.

The jet was en route from Sanaa to Moroni, the capital of the main island of the Comoros archipelago.

Yemenia spokesman Mohammad al Sumairi said: "The weather conditions were rough - strong wind and high seas.

"The wind speed recorded on land at the airport was 61km (38 miles) an hour. There could be other factors."

A United Nations official at the airport said the control tower had received notification the plane was coming in to land, and then lost contact with it.

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

Its fleet includes two Airbus 330-200s, four Airbus 310-300s and four Boeing 737-800s, according to the company website

It is the second Airbus to plunge into the sea this month. An Air France Airbus A330-200 crashed into the Atlantic Ocean killing 228 people on board on June 1.

In Brussels, EU Transport Commissioner Antonio Tajani said Yemenia Airways had previously met EU safety checks and was not on its blacklist.

An Airbus statement said the plane that crashed went into service 19 years ago, in 1990, and had accumulated 51,900 flight hours.

It has been operated by Yemenia since 1999. Airbus said it was sending a team of specialists to the Comoros.

The A310-300 is a twin-engine widebody jet that can seat up to 220 passengers. There are 214 in service worldwide with 41 operators.

Credit to | sky news


An Airbus A310-300 aircraft operated by Yemenia Air, the national air carrier of Yemen, has been lost in the Indian Ocean near the Comoros Islands. The aircraft, operating as Yemenia Flight IY626, had been en route from Sana'a, Yemen to Moroni, Comoros Islands. It was reported overdue at its destination, and is believed to have crashed into the ocean.

News reports say there were about 150 people on board the flight. At this time it is not known if there are any survivors.

UPDATE: The following message has been posted on the Yemenia web site:

Yemenia regrets to announce the missing of its flight No. IY626 from Sana’a to Moroni with 142 passengers and 11 crew onboard for more information contact the call center at 00967 1250800 or the emergency No 00967 1 250833 or call center 00967 1 250800

UPDATE 2: News media are reporting that in the early morning hours of of Tuesday, June 30, 2009, searchers located wreckage believed to be from Yemenia Flight IY626. The debris was discovered in the ocean, just off the coast of Grande Comore, and was said to be not far from shore. Some human remains also have been recovered, but no survivors have been found so far.

Reuters news agency quoted Mohammad al-Sumairi, deputy general manager for Yemenia operations, who said, "We still do not have information about the reason behind the crash or survivors."

"The weather conditions were rough; strong wind and high seas. The wind speed recorded on land at the airport was 61 km an hour. There could be other factors," he said.

Airbus, the manufacturer of the accident aircraft, has issued a statement with information about the plane. The statement, which is posted on the Airbus web site, notes the time of the accident as 01:50 local time (Comoro Islands) on June 30, 2009.

Airbus gives these details about the aircraft:

The aircraft involved in the accident, registered under the number 70-ADJ was MSN (Manufacturer Serial Number) 535. It was first delivered from the production line in 1990 and has been operated by Yemenia since October 1999. The aircraft had accumulated approximately 51,900 flight hours in some 17,300 flights. It was powered by Pratt and Whitney engines PW4152. At this time no further factual information is available.

In line with the ICAO Annex 13 international convention, Airbus will provide full technical assistance to the French BEA as well as to the authorities who will be responsible for the accident investigation. A team of specialists from Airbus is being dispatched to the Comoro Islands.

The A310-300 is a twin engine widebody seating 220 passengers in a standard two class configuration. The first A310-300 entered service in December 1985. By the end of May 2009, 214 A310s were in service with 41 operators. To date, the entire fleet has accumulated some 11.7 million flight hours in some 4.5 million flights.

UPDATE June 30, 2009: News media are reporting that at least one survivor, described as a child, has been rescued. Reports vary about the age and gender of the child.

Credit to | aircrewbuzz.com