Libyan plane crashes, kills 96
TRIPOLI, Libya — A Libyan Afriqiyah Airways plane with 104 people on board crashed today on approach to Tripoli's airport, killing at least 96 people. A 10-year-old Dutch boy was the only known survivor, Libya's transport minister said.
Libyan state television showed a large field scattered with small and large pieces of plane debris and dozens of police and rescue workers with surgical masks and gloves, some of them carrying at least one body away. They gathered small personal items such as wallets and cell phones from the wreckage.
Others sifted through debris — some of it still smoldering — including a flight recorder and green seats with television screens on them. A large piece of the plane's tail was visible, bearing Afriqiyah's brightly colored logo with the numbers "9.9.99," a reference to the date of the founding of the African Union.
Transport Minister Mohammed Ali Zaidan said 96 bodies have been recovered from the wreckage. Libya's official JANA news agency quoted him as saying a Dutch boy has survived the crash, but did not say anything on his condition.
Rescue workers were looking for more bodies, Zaidan said.
In Amsterdam, Dutch Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende said dozens of Dutch citizens were aboard the plane and confirmed a Dutch boy survived. The exact number of Dutch victims was not known, he said.
The Airbus A330-200 arriving from Johannesburg, South Africa was approaching the airport in the Libyan capital Tripoli when it crashed at about 11 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time Tuesday.
