As reported by the New York Times, there appears to be one sole survivor from this most recent air disaster that happened this early Tuesday morning. The Yemenia airline's flight 626 went down into the ocean, carrying 142 passengers and 11 crew-members from the Yemen city of Sana to another city Moroni, which is on the main island of Grand Comore (of the nation Comoros). This news was briefly reported in last night's Over Night Digest, but I thought some people might not have read this news. The sole survivor's identity has yet to be confirmed by the Mainstream media.
According to NBC News (MSNBC.com,), there have been varying reports of the identity of the sole survivor. The story appears to be changing from that of the survivor being a young boy to now, it's a young girl. I can't find any explanation for the discrepancy. MSNBC.com reports ~
Earlier reports that a 5-year-old boy had survived the crash and was found floating at sea were probably incorrect, said Rachida Abdullah, an immigrations officer in the Comoros. Now, it appears the survivor is a 14-year-old girl, she told The Associated Press. Neither report could be independently confirmed.
For those of you who are wondering, I thought I'd include a picture of where the nation of Comoros is. It's off the coast of Africa (you can see the red box below, which hovers above the island's location) ~
As well, here is the flight trajectory as reported from MSNBC.com's online article. I apologize for the less than ideal photo quality here. I was trying to enlarge the picture a bit more ~
The New York Times journalist Nicola Clark reports ~
The plane crashed while descending to Prince Said Ibrahim International Airport in Moroni in heavy winds, the Yemeni authorities said. The crash site was 12 miles from the coast, an airline official said.
The French transportation minister, Dominique Bussereau, told French television that the "A310 in question was inspected in 2007 by the DGAC and they noticed a certain number of faults." He was referring to the French civil aviation authority.
The plane had not returned to France since that inspection, Mr. Bussereau said, adding that the airline was to be interviewed "shortly" by a European Union committee that has the power to ban airlines from European skies in the case of serious safety violations. The European Union is due to publish its latest quarterly list of airlines banned from the region next month.
The plane carrying these passengers and crew is an Airbus 310-300 (like the one below).
As of yet, it appears that there is only 1 survivor from this recent crash. Neither CNN.com, nor NYTimes.com has much information about this 1 survivor of the plane crash. There are few details as of yet, but I thought I'd pass this news along since I hadn't seen any diary about this recent calamity. From the New York Times article, it sounds like there have been some reported safety risks with this particular plane. Here's some more info from the New York Times article ...
The French transportation minister, Dominique Bussereau, said that the plane that crashed had previous technical problems. The "A310 in question was inspected in 2007 by the DGAC and they noticed a certain number of faults," he said, referring to the French civil aviation authority [...] The French Foreign Ministry said in a statement that 66 of the passengers were French. Hadji Mohamed Ali, the director of the airport at Moroni, told French radio that the plane lost radio contact with air traffic controllers five minutes before the crash.
To fill in the gaps of info here, I'll update this diary as the afternoon goes on. And I pray that more survivors are found & that we learn what's the cause of this horrendous crash. I offer this diary as a place to share our feelings & concerns for those who went down in this plane. I'll continue to have hope that more people are found. If you have any news updates, please also share them in the comments below. It appears that there's still scant info about these events unfortunately.
Peace and good vibes to all.