Monday, Jul 06, 2009
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DUBAI (Zawya Dow Jones)--An audio recording of the conversation between the captain of the Yemenia Airways flight that crashed off the Comoros Islands last week and the Moroni Airport control tower doesn't indicate that the plane had any technical problems, according to Yemen's civil aviation authority, the country's official news agency Saba reported late Sunday.
Hamed Faraj, Chairman of Yemen's Civil Aviation and Meteorology Authority said after listening to the recording tape, "we found out that it did not include any complaint by the captain from any technical problems in the plane before coming down", Saba said.
The Yemenia Airways Airbus A310 went down Tuesday in the Indian Ocean as it was approaching for landing on the Comoro Islands. A 14-year-old girl is the only survivor of the crash.
Faraj said the aircraft's so-called black boxes - voice and data recorders - had been located and will soon be recovered by a French investigation team arriving from Djibouti.
Last week, Yemenia Chairman Abdulkalek Saleh Al Kadi told Zawya Dow Jones that the aircraft crashed due to bad weather, not because of technical issues.
Yemenia has indefinitely suspended flights to and from Marseille, France, following the crash. The carrier said regular flights are continuing between Sana'a and Paris, and between Sana'a and Moroni. "Only the extra flights" have been suspended, it said.
-By Stefania Bianchi, Dow Jones Newswires; +971 4 3644967; stefania.bianchi@dowjones.com
Copyright (c) 2009 Dow Jones & Co.
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
06-07-09 0526GMT
