Yemeni airliner crashes into the Indian Ocean.... with survivor(s)!

[sbr]

Wow, that's extremely unusual.  The only similar case I can think of is the one over the Amazon in the 70s where one teenage girl survived the midair explosion and managed to hike through the rain forest to safety.... incredible story.

I heard about a crash near Detroit in the '70s where only a 4 year old survived, no link to the story ATM.

[Caliga]

Wow, that's extremely unusual.  The only similar case I can think of is the one over the Amazon in the 70s where one teenage girl survived the midair explosion and managed to hike through the rain forest to safety.... incredible story.

I heard about a crash near Detroit in the '70s where only a 4 year old survived, no link to the story ATM.

Yeah, I forgot about that one.

[grumbler]

I remember reading about a plane crash in the 1950s in which the only survivor had previously survived another fatal plance crash.

[sbr]

Apparently the French authorities had banned that specific plane from flying in France because of "irregularities in its technical equipment."

Not good.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/8126576.stm

France 'banned Yemen crash plane'

A Yemeni plane which crashed into the Indian Ocean was banned from France because of "irregularities", the French transport minister has said

Dominique Bussereau told parliament of ongoing concerns about the safety record of the Yemenia Airbus 310.

The plane was heading from Yemen to the Comoros islands, but many on board began their journey in France.

Rescuers have pulled a child from the ocean, the only known survivor from the 153 people on board.

One of the rescuers told French radio that the 14-year-old girl had been seen swimming among dead bodies and debris in the choppy waters, more than two hours after the plane vanished from radar screens.

She was pulled from the water suffering from exhaustion and cold, and is being treated at a hospital in the Comoros capital, Moroni.

"We tried to throw a life buoy. She could not grab it. I had to jump in the water to get her," the rescuer said.

Dr Ada Mansour, who treated the child in hospital, told AFP news agency she was conscious and talking, but added: "We are trying to warm her up because she was freezing."

It is believed the girl lives in Marseille and was travelling with her mother to the Comoros.

Change of aircraft

Most of the plane's passengers had flown on a different Yemenia aircraft from Paris or Marseille before boarding flight IY626 in Sanaa, the capital of Yemen.

The crash was the second involving an Airbus aircraft in recent weeks. On 1 June an Air France Airbus 330 travelling from Rio de Janeiro to Paris plunged into the Atlantic, killing all 228 people on board.

That tragedy also involved a large number of French citizens.

In Paris, Mr Bussereau told legislators that the Yemenia plane was not permitted to fly into France, and raised concerns about the transfer of passengers from a plane classed as safe to one which crashed into the ocean.

A few years ago, we banned this plane from national territory because we believed it presented a certain number of irregularities in its technical equipment," Mr Bussereau told parliament.

"The question we are asking... is whether you can collect people in a normal way on French territory and then put them in a plane that does not ensure their security. We do not want this to happen again."

However, an airline spokesman said poor weather was more likely to have been a factor in the crash than the condition of the plane.

Yemeni Transport Minister Khaled Ibrahim al-Wazeer also told Reuters news agency that the plane had recently undergone a thorough inspection overseen by Airbus and conformed to international standards.

The crash prompted the European Union to propose a world blacklist of carriers deemed unsafe.

The EU already has its own list, and its transport commissioner, Antonio Tajani, said such a list would be a "safety guarantee for all".

Anger and grief

Reports say the plane had been due in Moroni at about 0230 (2330GMT on Monday).

Those on board included three babies and 11 crew.

Some 66 of the passengers were French, although many are thought to have dual French-Comoran citizenship.

Gen Bruno de Bourdoncle de Saint-Salvy, French naval commander in the Indian Ocean, said the plane had come down about 15km (eight nautical miles) north of the Comoran coast.

The French military is helping in the search operation, which is being hampered by strong winds and high seas.

Comoran journalist Abubacar Omar told the BBC that the government had appealed for calm, and key politicians had returned from overseas to take charge of the recovery operation.

Another local journalist, Abdul Rahman Bar Amir, said: "Everybody is talking about only one thing - the crash.

"There are groups of people huddled everywhere, talking. All we can do is wait for information. Nobody is eating, nobody is drinking. All we are doing is waiting."

[Jaron]

14 yo = child?

[Caliga]

I remember reading about a plane crash in the 1950s in which the only survivor had previously survived another fatal plance crash.

Intriguing... do you remember any more details?  I used Wikipedia to try to find the story, and nothing seemed to match.  There was a story about a Piedmont Airlines crash in 1959 in Virginia with a single survivor... nothing said he had previously survived a crash (or survived a later one), but the source page noted he was in the Navy in WWII, so I was wondering if this was the guy and he survived a military crash... though I would have expected to see that in the article.

In trying to track this down, I did notice there have been more crashes with a sole survivor than I'd previously thought, though they are by no means a common occurrence.

[Caliga]

14 yo = child?

There were conflicting reports about the survivor's age and gender, but now the consistent reporting is that the survivor was a 14 year old girl (and Comoran native).  Amazingly, she only broke her collarbone in the crash.

Since there were also reports that the safety record/procedures of Yemenia was so poor that passengers were actually on occasion required to STAND for some flights, I actually wonder if this girl was standing, and when the plane broke up was thrown clear (since she wasn't belted in), which is why she survived.

[grumbler]

Intriguing... do you remember any more details?  I used Wikipedia to try to find the story, and nothing seemed to match.  There was a story about a Piedmont Airlines crash in 1959 in Virginia with a single survivor... nothing said he had previously survived a crash (or survived a later one), but the source page noted he was in the Navy in WWII, so I was wondering if this was the guy and he survived a military crash... though I would have expected to see that in the article.

In trying to track this down, I did notice there have been more crashes with a sole survivor than I'd previously thought, though they are by no means a common occurrence.

I do remember one bizarre detail that should help confirm when you find the story:  he was found in a tree, still strapped into his seat.  I was thinking it happened in PA, but VA could also be true.   Sorry I can't remember more than I have, but I am almost positive the article said the second crash happened in the 1950s.  The first could well have been in the war - it may not have been an airliner, though that it certainly how I remembere it, because it was so weird.  The story I was reading could well have been an obituary.

[Caliga]

Well the found in a tree thing seems possible in that case, since the crash was into the side of Bucks Elbow Mountain, which appears to be heavily wooded.  It looks like there is still wreckage strewn about there (see picture in article linked below):

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piedmont_Airlines_Flight_349

[Caliga]

hmmmm.... grumbler, was it this guy?

http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=Rq0LAAAAIBAJ&sjid=TlUDAAAAIBAJ&pg=6528%2C5819428

[grumbler]

hmmmm.... grumbler, was it this guy?

http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=Rq0LAAAAIBAJ&sjid=TlUDAAAAIBAJ&pg=6528%2C5819428

No, the second crash (at least) was an airliner.

Now you are making me curious enough to do your work for you! 

[DGuller]

14 yo = child?

There were conflicting reports about the survivor's age and gender, but now the consistent reporting is that the survivor was a 14 year old girl (and Comoran native).  Amazingly, she only broke her collarbone in the crash.

Since there were also reports that the safety record/procedures of Yemenia was so poor that passengers were actually on occasion required to STAND for some flights, I actually wonder if this girl was standing, and when the plane broke up was thrown clear (since she wasn't belted in), which is why she survived.

Nobody was belted in, the plane didn't have seat belts.

[Caliga]

 

[Cecil]

I dont think anyone who hasnt flown with these sort of third world country companies understand how bad they are. My grandpappy flew with iraqi airlines in the 70ies. Half the chairs weren´t attached to the floor among other things so you could move them around at will. He was pretty sure he wouldnt come down alive.