Libyan plane crashes killing 104, a child survives! 05/12/2010
0 Comment(s)
Afriqiyah Airplane (from archive, NOT the actual plane that crashed)
It is
reported that, up to 105 people have been killed in a commercial plane crash in the Libyan capital of Tripoli.
Libya's Afriqiyah Airways said its Airbus-330 arriving from South Africa was coming in to land when it crashed on Wednesday morning at approximately 0610 hrs local time (0419 hrs MGT).
"Afriqiyah Airways announce that our flight 8U771 had an accident during landing at Tripoli International airport." "...at this moment we have no information concerning possible casualties or survivors. Our information is that there were 93 passengers and 11 crew aboard,"
the airline said on its website.
The BBC's Rana Jawad in Tripoli says it was not clear whether the plane was on the runway when it crashed, but she says that people she spoke to at the airport said they could not see the plane. The plane had been due to go on to Gatwick airport near London after stopping in Tripoli.
A security official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said all passengers and crew members had been killed in the accident.
A source told Al Jazeera that an eight-year-old passenger had survived the crash.
Al Jazeera's Haru Mutasa, reporting from Johannesburg, said the plane was a "fairly new" Airbus. "The airport in South Africa has not yet released details about the nationalities of the passengers," she said. "People are still struggling to find out what actually happened."
Afriqiyah Airways is a Libyan airline that was founded in 2001.