MORONI, Jul 02, 2009 (AFP) - US and French military divers on Thursday joined the hunt for debris and bodies from the Comoros air disaster.
The Yemenia airline jet crashed into the sea on Tuesday and only one survivor -- a 12 year-old girl -- has been found from the 153 passengers and crew.
The Airbus A310 jet is believed to be more than 300 metre (1,000 feet) below the surface where it crashed as it approached Moroni airport.
"The difficulty in retrieving bodies is because the plane is located some 300 to 400 metres (deep) and at a spot difficult to access," Comoros Red Cross spokeswoman Ramulati Ben Ali said.
The French and US navies have provided ships and divers to help in the hunt. Neighbouring Madagascar has also provided search equipment.
On Wednesday, search teams detected signals from the distress beacons of the jet, which had made one failed attempt to land.
Comoros President Ahmed Abdallah Sambi cut short a trip to an African Union summit in Libya and returned home Wednesday. He held a meeting with government officials at Moroni airport to be briefed on the search operations.
Vice President Idi Nodhoim on Wednesday criticised France for not alerting the Comoros government that the jet had been banned from French airspace because of safety concerns.
But Nadhoim's criticism drew a sharp retort from French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner.
"The plane was banned from flying to our country, everybody knew it," said Kouchner said. "Everybody knew it in the Comoros, everybody."
Yemenia airlines, which has come under attack from the relatives of victims over its safety record, said it will make an initial payment of 20,000 euros (28,000 dollars) to the family of each victim.
Airbus, still reeling from the crash of an Air France A330 into the Atlantic on June 1 with 228 people on board, has sent investigators to the Comoros, while French prosecutors have started a judicial investigation.
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Copyright AFP 2009.
