Rediff.com« Back to articlePrint this article

Yemen jet crashes in Indian Ocean, 154 feared dead

June 30, 2009 10:14 IST

A Yemeni jet with over 150 people on board crashed in the Indian Ocean, off the island nation of Comoros, officials said on Tuesday.

Yemenia Flight 626 was on its way to Moroni, the capital of Comoros, from Yemen's capital Sanaa. According to officials from the national airline Yemenia, the plane crashed approximately an hour before reaching its destination. There was no news about the fate of the 154 people on board. The plane, an Airbus A310, was carrying 143 passengers and 11 crew members.

Most of the passengers aboard the Airbus A310 hailed from Comoran, an island nation off the east coast of Africa.

This is the second crash involving an Airbus within a month. On June 1, an Air France Airbus A330, traveling from Rio de Janeiro to Paris, crashed off Brazil. The 228 passengers on board the ill fated plane are presumed dead.