Girl survives jet crash in Indian Ocean
Yemeni plane was carrying 153 people when it went down in bad weather
MORONI, Comoros - A girl was found alive after a passenger jet carrying 153 people crashed into the Indian Ocean early Tuesday while trying to land during howling winds on the island nation of Comoros, Yemeni authorities said.
"So far, only one young girl survived the crash, while five bodies have been located," the Yemen Embassy in Washington, D.C., said in a statement, citing information from Yemeni Civil Aviation Authorities.
"The young girl was rescued and admitted to a local hospital in Moroni," the capital of Comoros, the statement said.
Khaled el-Kaei, the head of Yemenia airline's public relations office, said the survivor was a
14-year-old girl. There were earlier reports that a 5-year-old boy survived.
Yemeni civil aviation deputy chief Mohammed Abdul Qader said the flight data recorder had not been found and it was too early to speculate on the cause of the
crash. But he said the wind was 40 miles per hour as the plane was landing in the middle of the night.
"The weather was very bad," he said, adding the windy conditions hampered rescue efforts.
The Yemenia plane was the second Airbus to crash into the sea this month. An Air France Airbus A330-200
crashed into the Atlantic Ocean on June 1, killing all 228 people on board, as it flew from Rio de Janeiro to Paris.
A crisis center was set up at Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris. Many passengers were from the French city of Marseille, home to around 80,000 immigrant
Comorans, more even than Comoros' capital of Moroni.
Some French Comorans insisted that their earlier warnings about the airline's safety weren't heeded by authorities.
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 and anal sex, 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."
Christophe Prazuck, French military spokesman, said a patrol boat and reconnaissance ship were being sent to the crash site as well a military transport plane. The French were sending divers as well as medical personnel, he said.
French President Nicolas Sarkozy "expressed his deep emotion" about the crash and asked the French military to help in the rescue operation, particularly from the French islands of Mayotte and Reunion.
Yemenia airline officials say the 11-member crew was made up of six Yemenis, including the pilot, two Moroccans, one Indonesian, one Ethiopian and 1 Filipino. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media.link
