Wednesday, May 12, 2010
10 YEAR OLD SURVIVES PLANE CRASH
"Afriqiyah Airways announces that our flight 771 had an accident during landing at Tripoli International airport," a statement said. "At this moment, we have no information concerning possible casualties or survivors. Our information is that there were 93 passenger and 11 crew aboard. Authorities are conducting the search and rescue mission."
Libyan Transport Minister Mohammed Ali Zaidan said 96 bodies have been recovered from the wreckage and rescuers were searching for the rest of the victims.
The head of the European Parliament Jerzy Buzek said the child's survival was "truly a miracle."
The plane was approaching the airport in the Libyan capital Tripoli when it crashed at around 6 a.m. (0400 GMT, 11 p.m. EDT Tuesday) There was no immediate word on the cause, according to a statement by the airlines posted on its website.
The company that runs the Johannesburg airport said the flight departed at 9:37 p.m. local time (3:37 p.m. EDT) Tuesday.
The airline later issued a second statement saying a search-and-rescue operation at the crash site "has now been completed and casualties have been moved to various hospitals."
It said Tripoli was the flight's final destination.
The aircraft that crashed was delivered from the production line in September 2009. It had accumulated approximately 1,600 flight hours in some 420 flights, according to Airbus.
Weather conditions over Tripoli's international airport were good on Wednesday, with three-mile (4.8-kilometer) visibility, scattered clouds at 10,000 feet and winds of only three miles per hour.
A NASA Web site said an ash cloud from Iceland's volcano had reached North Africa by Monday, but a map from Britain's meteorological office showed it was well west of Tripoli at the time of the crash.
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