Another Plane Crash into the Ocean!

A Yemeni airliner with 150 people aboard has crashed in the Indian Ocean off the island nation of Comoros, an aviation official in Yemen's capital said Tuesday.


An Airbus 310 like the one pictured has crashed while on the way to the capital of Comoros.

The aircraft, from the national airline Yemenia, was en route to Comoros when it crashed about an hour from its destination, an airline official said. There was no immediate news of the fate of those on board.

The Airbus A310 was en route from Yemen's capital Sanaa to Moroni, the capital of Comoros, and most of the passengers were Comoran, an official at Sanaa's international airport said. Moroni is about 2,900 kilometers (1,800 miles) south of Yemen, off the east coast of Africa.

"We don't know if there are any survivors among the 150 people on the plane," Comoros Vice President Idi Nadhoim told Reuters.

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A Yemenia Air plane going from the Arabian Peninsula country of Yemen to the Comoros Islands has crashed in the Indian Ocean, a Yemen airport official said Tuesday.

The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he wasn't authorized to speak to media, said the plane was going from the Yemen capital of San'a to Moroni on the main island of Grand Comore.

The official said Tuesday that most of the passengers on the Airbus 310 were believed to be Comoros residents returning from Paris.

The Associated Press said it was not known how many passengers were on board the Yemenia Air plane, the status of the passengers and crew, or the reason for the crash.

But Comoros Vice-President Idi Nadhoim told Reuters from the airport at the main island's capital, Moroni, "there were 150 passengers on board," and that officials still don't know the location of the crash.

Nadhoim said the accident happened in the early hours of Tuesday, but could not provide further details.

A Paris Airport spokeswoman said a Yemenia flight left Paris on Monday morning before landing in Yemen and then taking off for Moroni, Reuters said.

The Comoros is an archipelago of three main islands situated about 2,900 kilometres south of Yemen, between Africa's southeastern coast and Madagascar.

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VamPyroX said:

WTF!?

Could this be a sign that the world is going to end? We've got 3 more years to go. Could it get much worse? :Ohno:

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Search teams have spotted the wreckage of a Yemeni jet that crashed in the Indian Ocean off the island nation of Comoros.

Relatives of passengers of the plane that crashed await news at Marseille airport in southern France.

1 of 3 The plane, carrying more than 150 people, was en route to Moroni, the capital of Comoros, from Yemen's capital, Sanaa.

A reconnaissance plane spotted traces of the jet in waters off the town of Mitsamiouli, Comoros Vice President Idi Nadhoim said Tuesday.

"There were no sign of survivors," he said. "There are a few bodies floating and there is a lot of debris floating around."

The crash took place as the plane approached the Hahaya airport in Moroni. The plane tried but failed to land and then performed a U-turn before it crashed, Nadhoim said. Officials did not know why the plane could not land, he said. Recent plane crashes »

There were 142 passengers and 11 crew members aboard, Yemenia Air officials said.

Nadhoim offered another figure, saying there were 147 passengers.

Flight 626 left Sanaa at 9:30 p.m. (1830 GMT) for what was expected to be a four-and-a-half-hour flight. The airline has three regular flights a week to Moroni, off the east coast of Africa, about 2,900 km (1,800 miles) south of Yemen.

The crash occurred about 1:30 a.m., Nadhoim said.

Most of the passengers aboard the Airbus A310 were Comorans, an official at Sanaa's international airport told CNN.

An official at Charles De Gaulle airport in Paris said there were also 66 French passengers aboard.

Yemenia Air had used the jet since 1999, on about 17,300 flights, Airbus officials said. The company said it would assist in investigating the crash.

"The concerns and sympathy of the Airbus employees go to the families, friends and loved ones affected by the accident," the company said in a statement.

The crash was the second involving an Airbus jet in a month. On June 1, an Air France Airbus A330 crashed off Brazil while en route from Rio de Janeiro to Paris, France. All 228 aboard are presumed dead. The cause remains under investigation.

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AlleyCat said:

According to CNN, the wreckage has already been found.

Rescuers spot wreckage of crashed plane - CNN.com

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A SURVIVOR has been found at the site where a Yemenia Airbus A310 crashed into the Indian Ocean off the Comoros today, a Yemenia airline official said.

"A survivor of the accident has been found," Yemenia's deputy managing director for operations Mohammed al-Sumairi said.

"Three bodies have been recovered.

"Rough seas and strong winds are hampering the search and rescue operations."

The plan crashed in stormy weather in the early hours as it was approaching Comoros en route from Yemen with 153 people on board including an 11-member crew, officials said.

Sixty-six of the passengers are French nationals.

The wreckage of the jet was spotted about an hour before the survivor was found.

"A small plane flew over the scene and the pilot spotted debris and the craft," the Government's secretary-general, Nourdine Bourhane, said at about 6pm (AEST).

The crash occurred less than a month after an Air France Airbus carrying 228 passengers plunged into the Atlantic while en route from Brazil to France.

No Australians are thought to have been on board the flight, a spokeswoman for the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade said.

"The Australian embassies in Port Louis, Riyadh and Paris are urgently seeking to confirm the reports and determine whether any Australians are on board," she said.

"We have not had any suggestions that any Australians were involved."

A Comoran airport official told AFP the plane went down in stormy weather conditions.

"The flight was expected at 2230 GMT (0830 AEST, Tuesday). Before landing the control tower lost communication with the crew," said Hadji Mmadi Ali, the director of Moroni international airport.

"The weather conditions were unfavourable with strong winds."
The flight started at Paris's Charles de Gaulle airport yesterday 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.

The plane was was due to have touched down in Moroni at 2300 GMT on Monday (0900 AEST, today).

A crisis taskforce has been set up at Charles de Gaulle airport.

Yemenia was set up in 1978 and is 51 per cent owned by the Yemeni Government and 49 per cent by the government in neighbouring Saudi Arabia.

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JClarke said:

Actually according to news.com.au only few minutes ago, they have found a survivor.

Yemenia plane carrying 153 people crashes | World News | News.com.au

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VamPyroX said:

WTF!?

Could this be a sign that the world is going to end? We've got 3 more years to go. Could it get much worse? :Ohno:

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groans* Please don't remind me of that... I'm already nervous about it and three years will go by fast.

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You guys don't actually believe that the world is going to end December 21st, 2012, do you? How did anyone come up with such a random date?

As for the plane crash, 2009 is not the year of the planes.