Yemenia Flight 626
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Yemenia Flight 626 was an Airbus A310-324 twin-engine jet airliner operated by
Yemenia Yemenia ( ar, اليمنية) is the flag carrier airline of Yemen, based in Sanaa. It operates scheduled domestic and international passenger flights to destinations in Africa and the Middle East out of its hubs at Aden International Airport, a ...
that was flying a scheduled international service, from
Sana'a Sanaa ( ar, صَنْعَاء, ' , Yemeni Arabic: ; Old South Arabian: 𐩮𐩬𐩲𐩥 ''Ṣnʿw''), also spelled Sana'a or Sana, is the capital and largest city in Yemen and the centre of Sanaa Governorate. The city is not part of the Governo ...
in Yemen to Moroni in Comoros, when it crashed on 30 June 2009 at around 1:50 am local time (10:50 pm on 29 June UTC) while on approach to
Prince Said Ibrahim International Airport Prince Said Ibrahim International Airport (french: Aéroport international Moroni Prince Saïd Ibrahim, ar, مطار الأمير سعيد إبراهيم الدولي, AIMPSI) is an international airport serving Moroni in Comoros. It is named ...
, killing all but one of the 153 passengers and crew on board. The sole survivor, 12-year-old girl
Bahia Bakari Bahia Bakari (born 15 August 1996) is a French woman who was the List of sole survivors of airline accidents or incidents, sole survivor of Yemenia Flight 626, an Airbus A310, which crashed into the Indian Ocean near the north coast of Grande Com ...
, was found clinging to wreckage after floating in the ocean for thirteen hours. Bakari was discharged from the hospital on 23 July 2009. The final report on the incident concluded that the crew's inappropriate flight control inputs led to an
aerodynamic stall In fluid dynamics, a stall is a reduction in the lift coefficient generated by a foil as angle of attack increases.Crane, Dale: ''Dictionary of Aeronautical Terms, third edition'', p. 486. Aviation Supplies & Academics, 1997. This occurs when the ...
. The report also noted that the crew did not react to the warnings being issued by the aircraft.


Aircraft

The aircraft was an Airbus A310-324 twin-engine
jetliner A jet airliner or jetliner is an airliner powered by jet engines (passenger jet aircraft). Airliners usually have two or four jet engines; three-engined designs were popular in the 1970s but are less common today. Airliners are commonly clas ...
,
registration Register or registration may refer to: Arts entertainment, and media Music * Register (music), the relative "height" or range of a note, melody, part, instrument, etc. * ''Register'', a 2017 album by Travis Miller * Registration (organ), th ...
7O-ADJ, manufactured in 1990 as serial number 535. It was in service for 19 years and 3 months, and had accumulated 53,587 flight hours on 18,129 flight cycles at the time of the accident. Owned by the
International Lease Finance Corporation The International Lease Finance Corporation (ILFC) was an aircraft lessor headquartered in the Constellation Place in Century City, Los Angeles, California, US. It was the world's largest aircraft lessor by value, though ILFC's rival, General El ...
(ILFC) the aircraft first entered service with
Air Liberté Air Liberté (later known as Air Lib) was an airline in France founded in July 1987. Air Liberté was headquartered in Rungis.''World Airline Directory''. Flight International. 26 March-1 April 1997.44 Air Lib was headquartered in Orly Airport ...
on 30 May 1990. After leases to successive operators it was leased to Yemenia in September 1999, re-registered 7O-ADJ and remained in service with them until the accident.
Dominique Bussereau Dominique Bussereau (born 13 July 1952) is a French politician. He is president of the departmental council of Charente-Maritime since 2008 and president of the since 2015. He was Secretary of State for Transport within the government of ...
, the French
Minister of Transport A ministry of transport or transportation is a ministry responsible for transportation within a country. It usually is administered by the ''minister for transport''. The term is also sometimes applied to the departments or other government agen ...
, reported that the plane was inspected in 2007 by the French ''
Directorate General for Civil Aviation Directorate may refer to: Contemporary *Directorates of the Scottish Government * Directorate-General, a type of specialised administrative body in the European Union * Directorate-General for External Security, the French external intelligence ag ...
'' and found to have a number of faults; since then, however, the aircraft had not returned to France, so it was never again inspected by the same authority.


Flight history

Most of the passengers originated from Paris, where they had boarded Yemenia Flight 749 (an
Airbus A330-200 The Airbus A330 is a wide-body aircraft developed and produced by Airbus. Airbus conceived several derivatives of the A300, its first airliner in the mid-1970s. Then the company began development on the A330 twinjet in parallel with the A340 ...
). There was a stopover at
Marseille Provence Airport Marseille Provence Airport () is an international airport located 27 km (17 miles) northwest of Marseille, on the territory of Marignane, both ''communes'' of the Bouches-du-Rhône ''département'' in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur '' r ...
in
Marseille Marseille ( , , ; also spelled in English as Marseilles; oc, Marselha ) is the prefecture of the French department of Bouches-du-Rhône and capital of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region. Situated in the camargue region of southern Franc ...
, France, where additional passengers and crew boarded. After arriving at
Sana'a International Airport Sanaa International Airport is the primary international airport of Yemen located in Sanaa, the capital of Yemen. It services Sanaa City as well as the entire population of the Northern Provinces of Yemen. Initially, a small passenger terminal ...
in Sana'a, Yemen, passengers transferred to an
Airbus A310 The Airbus A310 is a wide-body aircraft, designed and manufactured by Airbus Industrie, then a consortium of European aerospace manufacturers. Airbus had identified a demand for an aircraft smaller than the A300, the first twin-jet wide-bod ...
for Flight 626, which was due to arrive at
Prince Said Ibrahim International Airport Prince Said Ibrahim International Airport (french: Aéroport international Moroni Prince Saïd Ibrahim, ar, مطار الأمير سعيد إبراهيم الدولي, AIMPSI) is an international airport serving Moroni in Comoros. It is named ...
in Moroni, Comoros, at 2:30 am local time on 30 June. The flight crew members, all Yemeni, were Captain Khalid Hajeb (44), First Officer Ali Atif (50), and Flight Engineer Ali Salem. Of the cabin crew, three were Yemeni, two were Filipino, two were Moroccan, one was Ethiopian, and one was Indonesian.Yemenia crew bodies arrive in Sana'a
." ''Saba Net''. 1 December 2009. Retrieved 15 May 2001.
Captain Hajeb had been working for Yemenia since 1989 and became an A310 captain in 2005. He had 7,936 flight hours, including 5,314 hours on the Airbus A310. Hajeb had previously flown to Moroni 25 times. First officer Atif had been with the airline since 1980 and he was qualified to fly the Airbus A310 in 2004. Atif had 3,641 flight hours, with 3,076 on the Airbus A310 and had previously flown to Moroni 13 times.


Accident

The crash occurred at night, off the north coast of
Grande Comore Grande Comore () is an island in Comoros off the coast of Africa. It is the largest island in the Comoros nation. Most of its population is of the Comorian ethnic group. Its population is about 316,600. The island's capital is Moroni, Comoros, ...
, Comoros, in the Indian Ocean several minutes from the airport. The aircraft was on approach to the airport, and was to land on runway 02. However, the aircraft continued past the point at which the approach required it to turn and then made a left turn towards the north, going off course. The aircraft then stalled and crashed into the sea. An unnamed United Nations official at the airport said that the
control tower Air traffic control (ATC) is a service provided by ground-based air traffic controllers who direct aircraft on the ground and through a given section of controlled airspace, and can provide advisory services to aircraft in non-controlled airsp ...
had received a notification that the plane was approaching to land before losing contact. An unseasonably strong cold front had moved through the Comoros Islands, bringing winds gusting to and conditions favorable for light to moderate turbulence. Yemeni civil aviation deputy chief Mohammed Abdul Qader said the wind speed was at the time the aircraft was landing. Yemeni officials did not suspect foul play. This was the third accident for Yemenia; the previous two were runway excursions with no fatalities, although one aircraft was written off.


Search and recovery

According to the Comoran police, the nation possesses no sea rescue capabilities. Two French military aircraft and a vessel began the formal search for Flight 626. They were sent from
Réunion Réunion (; french: La Réunion, ; previously ''Île Bourbon''; rcf, label= Reunionese Creole, La Rényon) is an island in the Indian Ocean that is an overseas department and region of France. It is located approximately east of the island ...
and
Mayotte Mayotte (; french: Mayotte, ; Shimaore: ''Maore'', ; Kibushi: ''Maori'', ), officially the Department of Mayotte (french: Département de Mayotte), is an overseas department and region and single territorial collectivity of France. It is loc ...
. The Comoros consists of three volcanic islands,
Grande Comore Grande Comore () is an island in Comoros off the coast of Africa. It is the largest island in the Comoros nation. Most of its population is of the Comorian ethnic group. Its population is about 316,600. The island's capital is Moroni, Comoros, ...
, the main island;
Anjouan Anjouan (; also known as Ndzuwani or Nzwani, and historically as Johanna or Hinzuan) is an autonomous high island in the Indian Ocean that forms part of the Union of the Comoros. Its chief town is Mutsamudu and, , its population is around 277,500. ...
; and Moheli. It is located in the
Mozambique Channel The Mozambique Channel (french: Canal du Mozambique, mg, Lakandranon'i Mozambika, pt, Canal de Moçambique) is an arm of the Indian Ocean located between the Southeast African countries of Madagascar and Mozambique. The channel is about long ...
, northwest of
Madagascar Madagascar (; mg, Madagasikara, ), officially the Republic of Madagascar ( mg, Repoblikan'i Madagasikara, links=no, ; french: République de Madagascar), is an island country in the Indian Ocean, approximately off the coast of East Africa ...
and a similar distance east of the African mainland. The Comoros archipelago includes Mayotte, which is French territory and not part of the Union of the Comoros. The wreckage was spotted off the coast of the town of
Mitsamiouli Mitsamiouli (population 6,100) is a town on the northwest coast of Grande Comore in the Comoros. History On 23 November 1996, Ethiopian Airlines Flight 961 made a crash-landing in the shallow waters offshore from Le Galawa Beach Hotel in Mitsami ...
, including a few bodies and large amounts of floating debris in the ocean.


Survivor found

14-year-old girl
Bahia Bakari Bahia Bakari (born 15 August 1996) is a French woman who was the List of sole survivors of airline accidents or incidents, sole survivor of Yemenia Flight 626, an Airbus A310, which crashed into the Indian Ocean near the north coast of Grande Com ...
was rescued after being spotted clinging to a piece of debris among bodies and wreckage. She was picked up during rescue efforts by local fishermen and speedboats sent by authorities on Grande Comore. She had been holding on to wreckage for 13 hours. Bakari had been traveling with her mother, who did not survive. Bakari was released from the hospital in Paris on 23 July 2009.


Continued searches

Five bodies were recovered at the same time that the lone survivor was rescued. Another 22 bodies were recovered from
Mafia Island Mafia Island (Kisiwa cha Mafia) is an island and district of Pwani Region, Tanzania. The island is the third largest in Tanzanian ocean territory, but is not administratively included within the semi-autonomous region of Zanzibar, which has been ...
in Tanzania during the second week of July 2009, and transferred to hospitals in
Dar es Salaam Dar es Salaam (; from ar, دَار السَّلَام, Dâr es-Selâm, lit=Abode of Peace) or commonly known as Dar, is the largest city and financial hub of Tanzania. It is also the capital of Dar es Salaam Region. With a population of over s ...
. On 5 July 2009, the signals from the aircraft's
flight recorder A flight recorder is an electronic recording device placed in an aircraft for the purpose of facilitating the investigation of aviation accidents and incidents. The device may often be referred to as a "black box", an outdated name which has b ...
s were detected. The French oceanographic vessel ''Beautemps-Beaupré'' arrived at the Comoros on 15 July 2009, and by 23 July 2009 had completed a mapping of the ocean floor around the crash area, which helped pinpoint the exact location of the recorders. Due to the great depth of the recorders' current location, the French navy had announced that it would employ underwater robots for the recovery operation, which began in August 2009. The
flight data recorder A flight recorder is an electronic recording device placed in an aircraft for the purpose of facilitating the investigation of aviation accidents and incidents. The device may often be referred to as a "black box", an outdated name which has b ...
(FDR) was eventually recovered on 28 August from the Indian Ocean at a depth of , while the
cockpit voice recorder A flight recorder is an electronic recording device placed in an aircraft for the purpose of facilitating the investigation of aviation accidents and incidents. The device may often be referred to as a "black box", an outdated name which has b ...
(CVR) was recovered on 29 August.


Investigation

The '' National Civil Aviation and Meteorological Agency'' (ANACM) of the Comoros was in charge of the investigation. The French ''
Bureau of Enquiry and Analysis for Civil Aviation Safety The Bureau of Enquiry and Analysis for Civil Aviation Safety (BEA, ) is an agency of the French government, responsible for investigating aviation accidents and incidents and making safety recommendations based on what is learned from those inve ...
'' (BEA) sent an investigative team, accompanied by Airbus specialists, to assist in the investigation of the causes. Yemen also sent a technical team to Moroni, while a committee, headed by the Yemeni Minister of Transport, was formed. The BEA noted that due to corrosion damage on the memory cards, not all of the data from the CVR could be recovered. The preliminary findings of the investigation pointed to pilot error as the cause of the accident, bringing objections from the Comoros and Yemeni authorities. In November 2009, Yemenia announced that they were looking for a third party to investigate the accident, accusing the French of attacking Yemenia "day and night" and of "harassment". Yemenia stated that the investigation was "affecting the reputation of Yemen". In 2011 the BEA criticized the Comorian authorities, saying that they are not releasing the report in a timely enough manner. On 25 June 2013, the Comoros investigative commission director Bourhane Ahmed Bourhane announced that "the accident was due to inappropriate action by the crew" during "an unstabilised manoeuvre." A group of victims' family members called for a demonstration in Paris on 28 June 2013 to protest the final report. According to the ''Yemen Post'', Yemen suspects that the plane was taken down, despite a lack of any evidence indicating foul play. The investigation determined that the accident was caused by the inappropriate actions of the crew that led to a stall from which the aircraft did not recover. The approach was unstabilized, triggering various alarms for ground proximity, aircraft configuration and approach to stall. The crew was focused on navigating, were stressed, and did not respond adequately to the different alarms. Contributing to the accident were the windy weather conditions, a lack of training, the lack of a crew briefing before the flight, and a failure to correctly respond to the pull up alarm.


Passengers and crew

There were 142 passengers and 11 crew aboard. Most passengers are believed to have been either Comorian or French nationals. There were also citizens of Canada, Ethiopia,
Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania between the Indian and Pacific oceans. It consists of over 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, and parts of Borneo and New Guine ...
, Morocco,
Israeli Israeli may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to the State of Israel * Israelis, citizens or permanent residents of the State of Israel * Modern Hebrew, a language * ''Israeli'' (newspaper), published from 2006 to 2008 * Guni Israeli ...
Arabs The Arabs (singular: Arab; singular ar, عَرَبِيٌّ, DIN 31635: , , plural ar, عَرَب, DIN 31635, DIN 31635: , Arabic pronunciation: ), also known as the Arab people, are an ethnic group mainly inhabiting the Arab world in Wester ...
, the
Philippines The Philippines (; fil, Pilipinas, links=no), officially the Republic of the Philippines ( fil, Republika ng Pilipinas, links=no), * bik, Republika kan Filipinas * ceb, Republika sa Pilipinas * cbk, República de Filipinas * hil, Republ ...
and
Yemen Yemen (; ar, ٱلْيَمَن, al-Yaman), officially the Republic of Yemen,, ) is a country in Western Asia. It is situated on the southern end of the Arabian Peninsula, and borders Saudi Arabia to the Saudi Arabia–Yemen border, north and ...
on board the plane. An airport source has claimed that 66 of the passengers held French citizenship, but many of those could be dual French-Comorian citizens. Many may have been residents of
Marseille Marseille ( , , ; also spelled in English as Marseilles; oc, Marselha ) is the prefecture of the French department of Bouches-du-Rhône and capital of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region. Situated in the camargue region of southern Franc ...
, a French city with a large Comorian population, headed home for a vacation; the week of the accident marks the beginning of summer vacations for French school children. The two other persons on board were said to be Europeans. The three flight crew members were all Yemeni. Of the cabin crew, 3 were Yemeni, 2 were Filipino, 2 were Moroccan, 1 was Ethiopian, and 1 was Indonesian.


Controversy

The French Transport Minister Dominique Bussereau said that France had banned the plane from its territory several years prior, because "we believed it presented a certain number of irregularities in its technical equipment." However, the Yemeni Transport Minister Khaled Ibrahim Alwazir declared the plane was in line with international standards and that "comprehensive inspection" had been undertaken in Yemen with experts from Airbus. The Comoran community in France marched in Paris, in tribute to the victims of Flight 626. They also disrupted Yemenia flights, protesting in French airports against the airline's safety record and preventing passengers from boarding or checking-in. As a result, Yemenia indefinitely canceled all its flights to and from
Marseille Marseille ( , , ; also spelled in English as Marseilles; oc, Marselha ) is the prefecture of the French department of Bouches-du-Rhône and capital of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region. Situated in the camargue region of southern Franc ...
and all additional flights between Sana'a and Moroni.


Burial and repatriation of bodies

As of Tuesday, 1 December 2009, remains of nine crew members had been retrieved and arrived in
Sana'a Sanaa ( ar, صَنْعَاء, ' , Yemeni Arabic: ; Old South Arabian: 𐩮𐩬𐩲𐩥 ''Ṣnʿw''), also spelled Sana'a or Sana, is the capital and largest city in Yemen and the centre of Sanaa Governorate. The city is not part of the Governo ...
. The crew members found were Captain Khalid Hajeb, First Officer Ali Atif, the three Yemeni cabin crew members, the two Moroccan cabin crew members, and the Ethiopian cabin crew member. One cabin crew member, Hamdi Wazea, was buried in Sana'a, while the other Yemenis who were found were buried in
Aden Aden ( ar, عدن ' Yemeni: ) is a city, and since 2015, the temporary capital of Yemen, near the eastern approach to the Red Sea (the Gulf of Aden), some east of the strait Bab-el-Mandeb. Its population is approximately 800,000 people. ...
. The bodies of the Moroccans were sent to Morocco, while the Ethiopian was sent to
Addis Ababa Addis Ababa (; am, አዲስ አበባ, , new flower ; also known as , lit. "natural spring" in Oromo), is the capital and largest city of Ethiopia. It is also served as major administrative center of the Oromia Region. In the 2007 census, t ...
. The crew members who had not been found included Yemeni engineer Ali Salem, the two Filipino cabin crew members, and the Indonesian cabin crew members. In the last two days leading to 1 December, 54 bodies were buried in Moroni.


See also

*
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*
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Air France Flight 447 Air France Flight 447 (AF447 or AFR447) was a scheduled international passenger flight from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, to Paris, France. On 1 June 2009, inconsistent airspeed indications led to the pilots inadvertently stalling the Airbus A330 ser ...
*
Kenya Airways Flight 507 Kenya Airways Flight 507 was a scheduled Abidjan–Douala–Nairobi passenger service, operated with a Boeing 737-800, that crashed in the initial stage of its second leg on 5 May 2007, immediately after takeoff from Douala International Airpo ...
*
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*
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References


External links


News Flight 626
Yemenia Airways
Archive
* National Civil Aviation and Meteorological Agency
Final report on the accidentArchive
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Interim report on the accidentArchive
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Accident de l'A310 de Yemenia Airways Commission d'enquête technique
"
Archive
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Bureau of Enquiry and Analysis for Civil Aviation Safety The Bureau of Enquiry and Analysis for Civil Aviation Safety (BEA, ) is an agency of the French government, responsible for investigating aviation accidents and incidents and making safety recommendations based on what is learned from those inve ...
**
Flight IY 626 on 30 June 2009
"
Archive
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Lettre du Directeur du BEA au Président de la Commission d'enquête de l'Union des Comores
"
Alternate

Archive


Directorate General for Civil Aviation Directorate may refer to: Contemporary *Directorates of the Scottish Government * Directorate-General, a type of specialised administrative body in the European Union * Directorate-General for External Security, the French external intelligence ag ...
*
STATEMENT Subject: Initial report on the crashed Yemenia airplane 70-ADJ, flight IY626 to Moroni
" Embassy of Yemen in Canada.
Archive
* {{Authority control 2009 in the Comoros Accidents and incidents involving the Airbus A310 Aviation accidents and incidents in 2009 Aviation accidents and incidents in the Comoros Accidents and incidents by airline of Asia June 2009 events in Asia Airliner accidents and incidents caused by pilot error June 2009 events in Africa