A Yemeni Airbus A310 jet, carrying 153 people, crashed into stormy seas as it came into land in the Comoros islands early Tuesday -- the second Airbus to crash in an
ocean in less than a month.
Bodies and wreckage from the Yemenia airline flight were spotted in the Indian Ocean near the island archipelago capital, Moroni, aviation officials said. A rescue operation was launched to try to find survivors.
There were 142 passengers and 11 crew on the Yemenia airline flight which had started in Paris early Monday and had made stops in
Marseille, Sanaa and Djibouti, an official with the carrier said.
Rescue boats were sent to the scene and France sent two navy ships and a plane from its nearby Indian Ocean territories to help.
But the stormy weather that the plane was going through when it disappeared from radar screens also hampered the rescue.
The Yemenia flight left Sanaa at 9:45pm (1845 GMT) on Monday and contact was lost at 1:51am on Tuesday (2251 GMT Monday), Kader
said.