Yemeni plane crash

Rescue workers have reportedly pulled a toddler alive from the sea where a Yemenia Airways plane crashed with 153 people on board. Mohammad al-Sumairi, a spokesman for the airline, said: "We have just learned from the Comoros that one person was rescued." Debris believed to be from the Yemeni Airbus A310-300 was earlier spotted off the Comoros archipelago in the Indian Ocean. The plane - with 142 passengers, including three infants, and 11 crew - was flying from Sanaa to Moroni, the capital of the main island of the Comoros when it went down in choppy seas as it tried to land. There were 66 French nationals on board and two of the country's military planes and a French ship have left the Indian Ocean islands of Mayotte and Reunion to search for the Yemenia aircraft. Agency for Aviation Security and Navigation in Africa and Madagascar (Ascena) official Ibrahim Kassim said: "The planes have seen debris at the supposed point of impact." It is the second tragedy in recent weeks for France after an Air France Airbus A330-200 crashed into the Atlantic off the coast of Brazil on June 1, killing all 228 people on board. A United Nations official at the airport, who declined to be named, said the control tower had received notification the plane was coming into land, and then lost contact with it. Yemenia is 51 per cent owned by the Yemeni government and 49 per cent owned by the Saudi Arabian government. Its fleet includes two Airbus 330-200s, four Airbus 310-300s and four Boeing 737-800s, according to the company website. The Comoros covers three small volcanic islands, Grande Comore, Anjouan and Moheli, in the Mozambique channel, 190 miles northwest of Madagascar and a similar distance east off the African mainland. France and the Comoros have enjoyed close ties since the islands' independence in 1975. The French Foreign Ministry estimates 200,000 people from Comoros live in mainland France.

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ITN | June 30, 2009

Tags:. .crew. .seas. .sea. .tower. .distance