Yemeni jet crashes in Indian Ocean
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A Yemenia Airbus A310-300 with 153 people on board crashed into the sea off the Indian Ocean archipelago of Comoros yesterday as it approached in bad weather, Reuters reported. The Yemenia jet was en route from Sana’a when the incident occurred. Only one survivor has so far been reported; a 14 year-old girl who was rescued from the sea. Of those thought to have perished, 66 were French nationals, while passengers from Canada, Comoros, Ethiopia, Indonesia, Morocco, the Palestinian territories, the Philippines and Yemen are also believed to have been on board.
Although bad weather has been cited as the cause of the crash, doubts have been raised as to the safety of the aircraft. French Transport Minister, Dominique Bussereau, said that faults had been detected during inspections in 2007 on the Yemenia A310, and that it had not flown to France since.
“The A310 in question was inspected in 2007 by France’s DGAC (French civil aviation authorities) and they noticed a certain number of faults,” he was reported telling the I-tele television channel. “The company was not on the black list but was subject to stricter checks on our part, and was due to be interviewed shortly by the European Union’s safety committee.”
However Yemen’s Transport Minister, Khaled Ibrahim al-Wazeer, told Reuters that the plane was thoroughly checked in May under Airbus supervision.
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