Black box from crashed Yemen jet found

ArticleData Array ( [Article] => Array ( [article_id] => 1043311 [headline] => Black box from crashed Yemen jet found [abstract] => One of the black box flight recorders from the Yemenia jet which crashed off the Comoros has been located, as the only survivor recovers in hospital. [keywords] => plane, black box [content] =>

One of the black box flight recorders from the Yemenia jet which crashed off the Comoros has been located, as the only survivor recovers in hospital.

"The black box's signal was located yesterday by an aerial patrol, 40 kilometres from Grande Comore," said Cooperation Minister Alain Joyandet.

A French patrol ship, the Rieuse, was to arrive on site later Wednesday to start operations to recover the flight recorder, he added.

French rescue teams on Wednesday joined in the search for survivors of the Yemenia jetliner, more than a day after it plunged into the sea while trying to land at Moroni airport in rough weather.

Sixty-six French nationals, and numbers of Comorans resident in France, were among the 153 passengers of the Airbus A310.

A French military plane, two navy ships, Zodiac fast boats and other equipment have arrived from the neighbouring French island of Reunion to assist in the search.

A 14-year-old girl was saved from the seas near the Comoros archipelago on Africa's east coast, but the Red Cross has warned hopes of finding more survivors were slim. A nurse says the girl is "doing well" in a hospital in Comoros.

Said Mohammed, a nurse at El Mararouf hospital in the archipelago's capital city, said on Wednesday doctors would release more on the girl's condition later in the day.

Mohammed said he cared for the girl through the night. Sergeant Said Abdilai told Europe 1 radio he rescued the girl after she was found bobbing in the water.

She couldn't grasp the life ring rescuers threw to her, so Abdilai said he jumped into the sea.

Meanwhile, Yemen's national carrier insisted on Wednesday it had a strict policy to ensure fleet maintenance and denounced speculation of technical problems.

Yemenia said in a statement it "implements a strict policy to ensure its aircraft are fully operational, with regular maintenance in line with international standards".

French Transport Minister Dominique Bussereau said on Tuesday that French inspectors had in 2007 found numerous faults on the plane, an Airbus A310-300, and that the airline was being closely monitored by EU authorities.

"The plane had not since then reappeared in our country," he said.

But Yemenia denounced what it said was "false information and speculation about technical problems" on the doomed plane.

Yemenia said it would "never allow one of its planes to take off unless it was in a very good condition", highlighting the fact that this was the first such incident in the history of the airline which was founded in 1961.

The company is 51 per cent owned by the government of Yemen, one of the poorest countries on the planet, and 49 per cent by Saudi Arabia.

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[content] =>

The Airbus 310 that crashed on Tuesday was 19 years old, yet experts say older planes can keep going strong for years as long as companies are willing to invest what it takes to keep them sky-worthy.

"Aircraft are usually retired due to economics rather than due to wearing out," said Bill Voss, president of the Flight Safety Foundation in Alexandria, Virginia, an international aviation safety think tank.

Still, whenever an accident involves an older passenger aircraft, the age of the plane often becomes a focus of speculation about the cause of the crash.

After the crash on Tuesday of a Yemenia jet with 153 people on board near the Comoros islands, some French Comorans questioned the airline's maintenance and safety records. Others said they had been complaining about the airline for years, but authorities brushed off their comments.

But analysts note that most of today's airliners can be kept flying almost indefinitely if regular inspections prescribed by the manufacturer are carried out. Although some airlines highlight in their advertising the newer aircraft in their fleets, newer and older planes tend to have similar safety records.

"This is an older aircraft. But older aircraft can operate safely for decades if provided with proper maintenance," said Capt Harry Eggerschwiler, chief of operations for the African Civil Aviation Authority.

The Airbus A310, the second model designed and manufactured by the European consortium, made its debut in the late 1970s. Deliveries ended 20 years later, when Airbus replaced it with the newer A330 and A320.

During two decades in production, the A310 had a comparable safety record to other jetliners. It earned a reputation among pilots as a relatively forgiving plane, easy to fly and responsive to commands.

Planes with service histories such as the A310 that crashed - with 52,000 flying hours and some 17,000 landing and takeoff cycles - remain common in the inventories of US and European airlines.

Yemenia airways itself has a solid safety record. In 2008 it passed the International Airline Transport Association's operational safety audit, a rigorous set of inspections considered an indication of high quality for any airline.

On Tuesday, the European Union's Transport Commissioner Antonio Tajani said in Brussels that the airline had previously met EU safety checks and was not on the their blacklist of unsafe airlines - a blacklist that has over 190 airlines.

He added, however, that a full investigation was being launched amid questions about why the passengers - who originated in Paris - were transferred on another jet in the Yemeni capital of San'a.

"The maintenance record of the plane the Yemeni airline will definitely be examined closely," Voss said.

Yemenia has, however, long been a target of criticism for the poor condition of its passenger cabins. Recent passengers have complained about missing or faulty seat belts. In the 1960s, when it was favoured by hippies flying to eastern Africa, passengers told stories of cabin attendants frying eggs on open fires in the aisles.

Stephane Salord, the Comoros' honorary consul in Marseilles, on Tuesday called the company's aircraft "flying cattle trucks".

Former passenger Mohamed Ali, a Comoran who went to Yemenia's headquarters in Paris to try to get more information on the crash, said sometimes passengers stand all the way from Yemen to the Comoros on the flights.

Still, analysts have cautioned against equating the condition of the passenger cabin on any airline with the aircraft's maintenance records.

One problem that does crop up with older aircraft, particularly when a certain model has been discontinued, is the issue of fake replacement parts.

Airline companies sometimes unwittingly purchase fake parts, which are then put into aircraft by their maintenance crews.

Despite rigorous international efforts to root out fake spares in the past decade, they are still believed to be in circulation.

"Pirate spare parts remain a big maintenance problem in aviation," Eggerschwiler said. "This is true everywhere in the world and not just in (developing) countries."
 

[content_type_id] => 3 [site_name] => World News Australia [articledate] => 1 July 2009 [articletime] => 1 July 2009 [display_order] => 1 ) [1] => Array ( [article_id] => 1042506 [headline] => Child survivor found after Yemeni plane crash [abstract] => Rescuers have found a child survivor of a Yemeni airliner that crashed off the coast of the Indian Ocean archipelago of Comoros, a hospital official says. [content] =>

Rescuers have found a child survivor of a Yemeni airliner that crashed off the coast of the Indian Ocean archipelago of Comoros, a hospital official says.

"A child was found alive. He is now on a rescuers' boat," Ben Imani, a doctor at Moroni's main hospital said.

A Comoros Red Cross official confirmed the rescue.

"We have all that is needed - drips, equipment - to assist the child immediately," said Al fachad Salim. It was not immediately clear if the child was the same survivor reported earlier in Sanaa by a Yemenia airline official.

Salim explained that fishermen also found debris, handbags and other personal effects after the plane carrying 153 people, including 11 crew, crashed off the Comoros.

Rescuers were stationed at the shore north of Grande Comores, the largest of the three isles making up the union of Comoros, witnesses said.

The secretary general of the Comoros government Nourdine Bourhane said the control tower had lost control with the crew at around 2300 GMT (0900 AEST) during poor weather.

Government officials have set up a crisis cell at the airport. Comoros state radio had suspended normal programmes and was broadcasting readings of Koran verses. 

Witnesses at the airport said they saw the jet approaching the airport before disappearing. "I saw the plane trying to land. I went into the (arrival) terminal to meet my mother, but there was no plane," Moussa Boina said.

[content_type_id] => 3 [site_name] => World News Australia [articledate] => 1 July 2009 [articletime] => 1 July 2009 [display_order] => 2 ) [2] => Array ( [article_id] => 1042331 [headline] => Timeline: Major recent plane crashes [abstract] => An Airbus A310 from Yemen with more than 150 people on board crashed into choppy seas as it came in to land on the Indian Ocean archipelago of Comoros on Tuesday, an airline official said. [content] =>

An Airbus A310 from Yemen with more than 150 people on board crashed into choppy seas as it came in to land on the Indian Ocean archipelago of Comoros on Tuesday, an airline official said.

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.

Here are details of recent major plane crashes.

June 30, 2009 - A Yemen Airways aircraft carrying a total of 153 people crashes in the waters of the Indian Ocean archipelago of Comoros.

June 1 - An Air France Airbus A330-200 jetliner carrying 228 people crashes over the Atlantic. Fifty-one bodies and 600 pieces of wreckage are recovered before the search for survivors is called off on June 26.

May 20 - An Indonesian C130 military transport plane carrying 110 passengers and crew crashes and bursts into flames 6.5 km from the Iswahyudi air force base in East Java while preparing to land, killing 98 people including two on the ground.

Sept. 16, 2008: One-Two-Go, a budget Thai airliner carrying 123 passengers and several crew crashes on landing at the resort island of Phuket. At least 85 of the 123 passengers were killed and five of the seven crew.

Aug. 24 - A Boeing 737-200 belonging to a private Kyrgyz company Itek-Air, chartered by an Iranian company and bound for Iran, crashes at Bishkek airport. Around 70 people, including members of a local teenage basketball team, died.

Aug. 20 - A Spanair MD-82, flying to the Canary Islands with 166 passengers and six crew, crashes on takeoff at Madrid airport killing 154 people. The remaining 18 are seriously injured.

July 17 - A Brazilian TAM passenger plane crashes into buildings when trying to land in Sao Paulo, killing 199 people aboard and on the ground.

May 5 - All 114 people on board a Kenya Airways Boeing 737 are killed after the plane crashed in torrential rain after takeoff from Douala in Cameroon en route to Nairobi.

Oct. 29, 2007 - A Boeing 737 operated by domestic carrier ADC, crashes after take off on a flight from the Nigerian capital Abuja to Sokoto. Only seven of the 106 people aboard the flight survived. Among the dead was Ibrahim Muhammadu, who as Sultan of Sokoto was the leader of the Muslim community.

Sept. 29 - One hundred and fifty-four people are killed when a Boeing 737-800 operated by low-cost Gol airline crashes in the Amazon rain forest.

Jan. 1 - An Indonesian Boeing 737-400 operated by budget carrier Adam Air disappeared from radar screens during a flight from Java to Sulawesi islands. Wreckage was located at sea 10 days later. All 102 passengers and crew were killed.

Aug. 22, 2006 - A Russian Tu-154 operated by Pulkovo Airlines crashes 30 miles (48 km) north of the east Ukrainian town of Donetsk, killing all 170 passengers and crew.

(Additional writing by Gillian Murdoch)

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