Yemeni Airliner Down in Comoros (Indian Ocean)

[wannabe_A&P_girl]

They found a toddler alive! (foxnews.com)



A Comoros police official said one toddler has been rescued alive from the sea off the coast of the island. Bodies were spotted floating in the ocean and the police official said three had been recovered so far.
Yemeni civil aviation deputy chief Mohammed Abdul Qader said there were 142 passengers and a crew of 11 Yemenis on board when the plane, which had set off from the Yemeni capital of San'a, went down before landing in Moroni, on the main island of Grand Comore.

[Evan]

Metar

Fmch 292300z 21025g35kt 9999 few020 25/16 q1017 tempo 18015g30kt

(I can't seem to make this post in all caps. Some kind of AI thing?)

[Evan]

7O-ADJ (MSN 535, PW4152 engines) / 51900 flight hours / 17300 cycles.

From the JetPhotos.net airframe database:

[Evan]

New York Times:

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.

[Jerrycobra Boeing]

they found an alive 5yr old!

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/ml_yemen_plane_crash

[Jerrycobra Boeing]

now wiki claims a pilot survived?

[wannabe_A&P_girl]

This airline was being scrutinized by the EU for safety violations and was shortly about to go up for a vote on a banning.

Just checked the news, nothing about additional survivors yet.

[Optimus Prime]

copy & paste of news article

http://www.examiner.com/x-15043-Austin-International-Travel-Examiner~y2009m6d29-150-dead-Yemenia-Airlines-flight-crashes-in-Comoros-an-island-nation-off-the-coast-of-Mozambique

Can we please refrain from just copying and pasting news articles.... do you have any comments or observations??

I know you may want to bump up your post count but come on.

[VViscount]

they found an alive 5yr old!

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/ml_yemen_plane_crash

It still amazes me how little children are the only ones to walk away from major crashes when everyone else perished. I hope there are more survivors found, but does anyone have a theory on this, because god knows some of you have the answers to way planes have crashed even before wreckage or CVR's/Flight data recorders are found?

[Alessandro]

7O-ADJ (MSN 535, PW4152 engines) / 51900 flight hours / 17300 cycles.

From the JetPhotos.net airframe database:

Ownership history of this aircraft,

http://www.airfleets.net/ficheapp/plane-a310-535.htm

[wannabe_A&P_girl]

[Highkeas]

It still amazes me how little children are the only ones to walk away from major crashes when everyone else perished. I hope there are more survivors found, but does anyone have a theory on this, ......................

Force = mass times deceleration

[Tomtom]

Based on initial reports, they aborted a landing on 196 and were in a go around pattern for an approach to 016. Winds were 21025G35KT. So they may have been favoring a headwind approach.



The reported crash location also seems to indicate that it may have occurred during the roll maneuver into crosswind.

Hmmm, please correct me but at an approach to 016 (RW 02), that wind would come almost from behind...
Is this the only approach plate? Is there even a RW 20 approach.

[below added to previous post]
So, it looks like the approach looks roughly like this:
- over the field heading 196
- either remain in the holding pattern
- turn right over LOM 214 or 206
- 13 to 15 nm out do what the press called the U-Turn, heading 16
- missed approach is a 50 degrees left turn heading 330 to avoid terrain

Terrain is probably the reason there is no RW 20 approach (speculation).


Thanks
Tom

[Dantheman]

I had mentioned on this forum shortly after the AF 447 crash that it would be sooner or later before another jetliner goes down.

May those who have perished rest in peace.

[wannabe_A&P_girl]

I read elsewhere that the captain of the flight was found alive, and that the report of a five-year-old child being found was not accurate; it was a fourteen-year-old girl, although I do not have a link to back up the latter report.

Here is some info:

Captain of the plane possibly survived the crash, special sources told NewsYemen.

Captain Khalid Hajib may be still alive, said the sources.

At a press conference held Tuesday morning, the spokesperson of the Yemenia Airlines Company, Mohammad AbdulRahman, said that bodies of three victims were taken out.

The spokesperson said 26 French, 54 Comore, 6 Yemenis, a Canadian, two Filipinos, an Indonesian, two Moroccan and an Ethiopian were on board. But he said that winds still obstruct rescue attempts by Yemeni, French and Comore rescue teams.


http://www.newsyemen.net/en/view_new...009_06_30_7812