Global General

At least 96 dead in Libyan plane crash

(Agencies)
Updated: 2010-05-12 19:50

A rescue worker examines the debris of Afriqiyah Airways flight 8U771 at Tripoli airport May 12, 2010. [Agencies]

TRIPOLI, Libya - A Libyan Afriqiyah Airways plane crashed Wednesday on approach to Tripoli's airport, killing at least 96 people, the transport minister said. A 10-year-old Dutch boy was the only known survivor.

The airline said the Airbus A330-200 arriving from Johannesburg, South Africa was carrying 104 people, 93 passengers and 11 crew. The fate of the other 7 passengers was not immediately known.

Libyan state television showed a large field scattered with small and large pieces of plane debris and dozens of police and rescue workers with surgical masks and gloves, some of them carrying at least one body away. They gathered small personal items such as wallets and cell phones from the wreckage.

Others sifted through debris, some of it still smoldering, including a flight recorder and green seats with television screens on them. A large piece of the plane's tail was visible, bearing Afriqiyah's brightly colored logo with the numbers "9.9.99," a reference to the date of the founding of the African Union.

Transport Minister Mohammed Ali Zaidan said 96 bodies have been recovered from the wreckage. Libya's official JANA news agency quoted him as saying a Dutch boy has survived the crash, but did not say anything on his condition.

Rescue workers were looking for more bodies, Zaidan said.

In Amsterdam, Dutch Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende said dozens of Dutch citizens were aboard the plane and confirmed a Dutch boy survived. The exact number of Dutch victims was not known, he said.

The plane was approaching the airport to land in the Libyan capital Tripoli when it crashed at around 6 am (0400 GMT, 11 pm EDT Tuesday) There was no immediate word on the cause, according to a statement by the airlines posted on its website.

Afriqiyah said flight 771 left Johannesburg at 1 am Wednesday (2300 GMT Tuesday, 8 pm EDT Tuesday).

"Afriqiyah Airways announces that our flight 771 had an accident during landing at Tripoli International airport," the 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."

The airlines 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."

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.