Banned Yemenia Jet Crashes
Odd details about the tragedy:
They started the search five hours after the plane went down.
The numbers of passengers announced aren’t adding up: 142 passengers along with a crew of 11 onboard crashed. There were 66 French nationals, according to France verses “The authorities have identified the nationalities of 93 passengers in addition to the crew of the airplane… 26 Frenchmen, 54 Comorian, 6 Yemenis, a Canadian, a Philippines, an Indonesian, two Moroccan, and an Ethiopian.”
The captain and a five year old survived the crash. Later reports say a 14 year old girl is the only survivor.
The chairman of Yemenia is President Saleh’s son-in-law, Abdul-Khalek Al-Qadi.
The plane was barred from France and the EU was monitoring the airline itself.
Three people en route from Comoros today on a Yemenia plane were found to have false French passports.
The flight is so bad, Yemenia has its own dedicated protesters, a group called SOS Comoros Travel. A spokesman said, “Flights between Sanaa and Moroni are carried out by cowboy operators…”They treat people like cattle, they pile them in, they don’t respect timetables, there are always technical problems.”
The Yemeni government of course is blaming bad weather.
Yemen Post: A five years old survivor was found from the 153 passengers of the Yemeni plane crashed early in the morning off Comoros while three bodies have been recovered. 26 of the identified bodies were Comorian, 54 French, a Palestinian, and a Canadian as well as a crew of 11 including six Yemenis, two Moroccans, an Indonesian, an Ethiopian and a Pilipino.
According to a press release issued today by the on the circumstances of the crash of the Yemeni Airways passenger plane (Airbus 300-310) flight (IY 626), the passengers were (139 +3 infants +11 crew)…On the other hand, France said 66 were French nationals.
Bloomberg notes the plane was banned from French airspace. There have been issues with Yemenia for some time.
The Airbus SAS A310 plane was 15 minutes from touching down in the islands’ capital, Moroni, when it crashed today, a Yemenia official, Taha al-Ashwal, said in a telephone interview from Yemen’s capital, Sana’a.
An inspection of the plane in France in 2007 noted “a certain number of faults,” French Transportation Minister Dominique Bussereau said in an interview with France’s i-tele channel without elaborating on the problems. The aircraft was barred from France after the inspection, and the airline was being monitored by European Union authorities, he said.
It wasn’t immediately known whether anyone survived, al- Ashwal said, adding officials “lost contact” with the aircraft at 1 a.m. Wreckage was spotted off the coast of the Comoros and some bodies were seen floating about 30 kilometers (18 miles) from Moroni, Agence France-Presse reported, citing senior aviation official Mohammad Abdel Kader.
“The weather was bad at that time and it’s still now,” Yemenia Chairman Abdulkalek Saleh Al-Kadi said in a telephone interview from Sana’a. Winds were gusting as high as 113 kilometers (71 miles) per hour and the sea was rough, AFP cited the aviation official as saying.
Changed Planes
Yemenia flew another plane from Paris to Sana’a via Marseilles, and then transferred the passengers for Comoros onto the A310, which didn’t meet the standards for flying in French airspace, according to Bussereau.
Most of the passengers were of Comorian origin from France, the airline said. Sixty-six French nationals were on the flight, the French Foreign Ministry said.
The Comoros Islands are an archipelago located off the southeastern coast of Africa, northwest of Madagascar. About 200,000 Comorians live in France, according to the French government.
So far, one survivor from crashed Yemeni airplane
COMOROS, June 30 (Saba) – As search for any survivors from the Yemenia Airplane, IY 626 flight, continues, one survivor has been found so far.
Meanwhile, the Yemeni authorities revealed that the nationalities of 93 passengers who were onboard the jetliner, which crashed in the Indian Ocean early on Tuesday, have been identified.
26 of the identified bodies were Comorian, 54 French, a Palestinian, and a Canadian as well as a crew of 11 including six Yemenis, two Moroccans, an Indonesian, an Ethiopian and a Pilipino.
