A Yemeni jet crashed while making an approach at Hahaya Airport in Comoros’ capital, Moroni – see map below. After an aborted landing, the plane made a U turn before crashing into the Indian Ocean. The Airbus A310-300 carried 153 people and was on the last leg of a flight that originated in Paris and Marseille enroute to the island nation of Comoros.
According to airline officials, sixty-six passengers were French nationals and the remainder of passengers were believed to be Comoros citizens returning home.
A search plane discovered the debris field and miraculously, a child was recovered among the floating bodies of deceased passengers in the choppy waters of the crash site. The youngster, age 5, was taken to an area hospital and appears to be the sole survivor.
According to Yemeni civil aviation deputy chief Mohammad Abdul Qader, the weather was very bad in the area with 40 mile an hour winds at the time the plane was attempting to land.
It is the second carsh involving an Airbus jet in a month. An Air France Airbus A330 crashed off Brazil with 228 passengers on board – all presumed dead. The all important black boxes were not recovered, leaving investigators to speculate on what brought the aircraft down.
View a video report below.