Yemeni plane crashes in Indian Ocean

30 Jun 2009, 3:47 pm   -   Source: AFP/SBS
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An Airbus A310-300.

An Airbus A310-300.

A Yemeni passenger jet has crashed off the Indian Ocean archipelago of the Comoros with 153 people on board, officials say, in the latest air disaster involving an Airbus.

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A Yemeni passenger jet has crashed off the Indian Ocean archipelago of the Comoros with 153 people on board, officials say, in the latest air disaster involving an Airbus.

Civil aviation authorities said that some bodies had been spotted at the site of the plane crash.

"Bodies were seen floating on the surface of the water and a fuel slick was also spotted about 16 or 17 nautical miles from Moroni," senior civil aviation official Mohammad Abdel Kader told reporters.

It is the latest air disaster involving Airbus since an Air France jet plunged into the Atlantic almost a month ago with 228 people on board.

"Yemenia regrets to announce the missing of its flight No IY626 from Sanaa to Moroni with 142 passengers and 11 crew onboard Airbus 310-300," was the announcement on the airline's website.

There was no immediate information about the possible cause of the crash.

"Rescue boats from the Comoros and Madagascar are taking part in the search operation," a Yemeni official told AFP, adding that the crash occurred about three kilometres from the coast.

An airport source in Paris, where the flight originated, said the aircraft had apparently "crashed into the sea several kilometres from the coast" as it was coming in to land in Moroni, capital of the Comoros.

It was was due to have touched down in Moroni at around 2300 GMT (0900 AEST).

Yemeni Transport Minister Khaled al-Wazir is due to give a press conference about the disaster later in the day, officials said.

The flight started at Paris's Charles de Gaulle airport on Monday when an Airbus A330-200 aircraft took off for Marseille in southern France and then on to Sanaa, the capital of Yemen.

In Sanaa, passengers changed to an Airbus A310 and departed for Moroni via Djibouti.

A crisis task force was set up at Charles de Gaulle airport, where 67 people had boarded the plane.

An Airbus A330 operated by Air France crashed into the Atlantic Ocean on June 1 as it was flying from Brazil to France but the cause has not yet been determined.

Yemenia was set up in 1978 and is 51 percent owned by the Yemeni government and 49 percent by the government in neighbouring Saudi Arabia, according to its website.

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