MORONI (Reuters) - An airliner belonging to Yemeni state carrier Yemenia Air crashed in the Comoros archipelago in the Indian Ocean with 150 people on board, a senior government official said Tuesday.
"We don't know if there are any survivors among the 150 people on the plane," a senior government official told Reuters.
Location: The laughing stock of the rest of the world!
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Latest quote from the BBC:-
"But a civil aviation official told the BBC that the plane was probably a few kilometres from the airport in the capital, Moroni, when it crashed.
Weather conditions had not been good for several days, he added."
No info on the specific aircraft as yet, although IY currently operates four. Its last hull loss was in Asmara (727) in 2001 and at Khartoum (737) in 2000, but both of these events were non-fatal.
Yemenia regrets to announce the missing of its flight No. IY626 from Sana’a to Moroni with 142 passengers and 11 crew onboard for more information contact the call center at 00967 1250800 or the emergency No 00967 1 250833 or call center 00967 1 250800
The Comoros officials report that they have no sea rescue facilities. God help any poor buggers that may have survived a ditching. Who would have sea rescue capabilities in that area? Mozambique? Tanzania? Yes, of course, we all know about Mozambiques and Tanzanias superb infrastructure and facilities ....
It is also reported that there are French as well as Cormoran nationals on board.
The approach at Hahaya FMCH can be very challenging indeed, I remember strange wind effects along the slopes of the vulcano as you might get at La Palma ( canaries) and Madeira.
At 9-sep-2003 we were at Moroni when the twr did report tailwind at both runway ends, a A310 from Yemenia made 2 attempts for approach which failed and they subsequently diverted to Dar es Salaam.
It is offcourse to early to speculate if WX was also a factor here, I pray there are survivors and that they are saved...
MORONI, Comoros (BNO NEWS) -- A boat found the wreckage of a Yemenia Airlines passenger plane on Tuesday morning, several hours after it went down in the Indian Ocean off Comoros, officials told BNO News. More than 150 people were on board the plane.
Around 8 a.m. local time, or 5 a.m. GMT, a boat which was assisting in the search for the crashed airliner reported that it had found the wreckage of the plane, a government official confirmed to BNO News. He did not know the condition of the wreckage or if any survivors were found.
The plane went down in the Indian Ocean, close to the coast. "The wreckage was found about six minutes from the airport," the government official added. An official at the Comoros Foreign Ministry earlier said that residents from villages on the coast had witnessed the crash.
The plane, an Airbus 310, was carrying a total of 147 passengers and 11 crew members. It was initially reported that there were 142 passengers on board but the official at the foreign ministry revised the number, saying 142 was incorrect. An unknown number of the passengers were Comoros residents returning from Paris. French residents were also reported to be on board.
It was Yemenia Airlines flight 626 which took off from Sana'a International Airport in Yemen, about four and a half hours before it crashed, minutes before reaching it destination. It was en-route to Prince Said Ibrahim International Airport in Moroni, the capital of Comoros.
It is unclear if the boat, which found the wreckage, belonged to Comoros or another country in the area. "Comoros does not have the facilities" to launch a rescue operation, a government official earlier said. He said a number of boats were en-route to the area and that France had sent a boat to assist in the search and rescue operation.
As of 5 a.m. GMT it remained uncertain if there were any survivors. "We are hoping,", the foreign ministry official said. The cause of the crash is unknown, although foul play is not suspected.
On November 23, 1996, Ethiopian Airlines flight 961 was hijacked and crashed near Comoros in the Indian Ocean after it ran out of fuel. A total of 175 passengers were on board, 125 of them were killed.
Earlier incidents involving Yemenia Airlines
Tuesday's plane crash is the worst accident in the history of Yemenia Airlines, records showed. The airline, which was founded in 1961, had been involved in three accidents.
On June 26, 2000, a Boeing 737 went off the side of the runway at Khartoum-Civil Airport in Sudan, causing the nose gear to collapse. There were no injuries.
On August 1st, 2001, a Boeing 727 overran the runway at Asmara International Airport in Eritrea and crashed into a large block of concrete, causing the main landing gear to fail. There were no casualties.
On January 22nd, 2001, an Iraqi man hijacked a Yemenia Airlines flight about 15 minutes after it took off from San'a International Airport in Yemen. He was armed with a pen gun and claimed to have explosives with him. He demanded to be taken to Baghdad but the flight crew overpowered the hijacker when it made a landing in Djibouti to refuel.
Moroni is a notoriously difficult airfield to fly into, especially at night. The airport is at sea-level on the West side of a skinny island, with a 7700' mountain just to the southeast of it and a 3600' one to the northeast..
There is no published approach to Rwy 20, just an VOR/DME/ILS for 02.
Easy to get disoriented at night as there are very few ground lights, a true 'black-hole' with part of it being the volcano mentioned.
Think SAA had a daylight-only policy for Moroni. No need to look further than CFIT and/or disorientation for this one IMHO.
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