Child survives Yemeni plane crash

MORONI (AFP) - A Yemeni Airbus jet carrying 153 people crashed into the Indian Ocean as it came in to land in the Comoros islands early Tuesday but rescuers pulled a child from the sea alive, officials said.
The A310 jet had aborted a landing attempt and was making a second attempt when it crashed, officials said.
It was the second time in less than a month that an Airbus has crashed into the ocean. This time French authorities said the Yemeni carrier had been under surveillance and that the 19-year-old jet had been banned from French airspace.
Bodies and wreckage from the Yemenia airline flight were spotted in the sea near the archipelagos capital, Moroni, aviation officials said. But a five-year-old boy among the 142 passengers and 11 crew on Flight IY 626 was rescued alive, Yemeni Transport Minister Khaled al-Wazir told AFP.
Its a child of around five and he was floating when he was found. Hes still in the rescue boat, said Ada Mansour, a doctor with medics gathered on a beach near the crash site.
Arfachad Salim, a rescue coordinator for the Comoros Red Crescent, said local fishermen had also found wreckage, passengers handbags and other effects.
There were no reports of other survivors. Officials said the plane crashed into rough seas in darkness, after disappearing from control tower radar screens at 1.51am Tuesday (2251 GMT Monday). The flight left Paris on Monday for Marseille and Sanaa, where passengers switched to the older Airbus to continue to Djibouti and Moroni. Bussereau said French inspectors had in 2007 found numerous faults on the A310 and that the airline was being closely monitored by EU authorities.
The plane had not since then reappeared in our country, he told i-tele news. According to an EU legal document, other inspections in Germany and Italy had shown up deficiencies with the airline, and in July last year the EU commission had insisted Yemenia provide an action plan to address safety concerns.
Yemenias deputy managing director for operations Mohammed al-Sumairi told France 24 television that the plane was technically sound when it left Sanaa, and it departed without any technical problems at all.
He said three bodies had been recovered from the sea by early Tuesday.
French civil aviation officials said 66 passengers were French. Many of the passengers were likely to hold dual nationality, however. Three small babies were also among the passengers, officials said. France sent two navy ships and a plane from its nearby Indian Ocean territories to help the rescue.
Bodies were seen floating on the surface of the water and a fuel slick was also spotted about 16 or 17 nautical miles from Moroni, senior Yemeni civil aviation official Mohammad Abdel Kader told reporters in Sanaa.
No cause has yet been announced for the Air France disaster. The black box flight recorders have yet to be found and their signal is due to stop emitting on July 2.
The Yemenia flight started at Paris Charles de Gaulle on Monday morning, using a more modern Airbus A330-200 for the first legs of the journey.
The plane flew to Marseille in southern France, where there is a large Comoran community, and then went on to Sanaa. There were about 100 passengers on board when it left Marseille, Yemeni civil aviation official Kader said.