96 bodies found in Libya air crash, child survive

Wednesday, May 12, 2010

Tunis - Until now, 96 bodies of people of different nationalities have been found following the air crash in the Libyan capital of Tripoli on Wednesday.

A ten-year-old Dutch boy, who survived the crash, is now under treatment and in good condition in a Libyan hospital.

Libyan authorities have found the two black boxes of the Afriqiyah Airways plane that crashed on landing at Tripoli airport early Wednesday morning.

The Afriqiyah Airways Airbus A330 was flying from Johannesburg to Tripoli when the accident took place at about 6am (0400 GMT).

The plane, Flight 8U771, crashed during the process of landing, said the airport authorities.

The cause of the crash was not clear, the airport authorities said, adding that the weather conditions were good at Tripoli on Wednesday morning. The plane exploded while landing and disintegrated.

The Chinese embassy in Tripoli confirmed that there were no Chinese passengers on board the crashed plane in Libya.

Ma Shaoyi, a senior official in the Chinese embassy in Tripoli, said no Chinese citizen was on board the crashed plane this morning.

Passengers on board are mainly Libyans, South Africans and Britons, with a total of 11 Libyan crew staff, he added.

TV footage showed that the wreckage could be seen at the airport but no smoke was visible.

Afriqiyah Airways, the airliner, confirmed in its first statement released earlier Wednesday that its flight 8U771, with 93 passengers and 11 crew members aboard, had an accident during landing at Tripoli International airport.

In the second statement of the company, it said the search and rescue mission has now been completed and casualties have been moved to various hospitals, adding a further statement will be issued later on the condition of the casualties.

The company was founded in April 2001 and ran a fleet of Airbus planes.