Photo by Aleks B A Yemenia Airbus A310 aircraft similar to the one used for Flight 626.

The jet was on a routine flight, flight IY626, from the capital of Yemen, Sanaa to Moroni, the capital of Comoros and crashed five minutes before it was due to land according to the Director of Moroni airport. It is estimated to have come down three kilometers from the coast. The passengers are said mainly to include Comoros and French citizens. 66 French citizens are said to have been on the flight. Ships and planes are at the crash site, where the bodies of some passengers have been found as well as pieces of the plane. A kerosene slick has also been located. The passengers began their flight on an Airbus A330-200 belonging to Yemenia on Monday leaving Roissy airport in Paris. The plane stopped over at Marseille then Sanaa, where they switched to the A310 for the last leg of the flight. Crisis operations have begun in Moroni, Sanaa and Paris. Reception facilities for relatives of passengers have been opened at both Roissy and Marseille-Provence airports. The accident hotline in Paris for those seeking news of passengers is (France) (0)1 48 64 59 59 The French Transport Minister, Dominique Bussereau, when asked about reports of bad weather conditions, replied "Yes, that is being talked about, but things are still a bit vague. There are also reports of an aborted landing attempt and a new attempt which went wrong. We need to be prudent about that for the moment as long as all the information has not been verified. He also said that "Numerous safety defects related to maintenance had been found on the plane involved, and Yemenia is a highly surveilled airline." There is no suspicion of foul play at this time. This is the second Airbus accident in a month, and it follows that of an A330-200 which crashed into the Atlantic on June 1 with the loss of all on board. The reasons for that crash have still not been determined.