Teen Survives Deadly Plane Crash

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MORONI, Comoros — A Yemeni jetliner carrying 153 people crashed in the Indian Ocean on Tuesday as it came in for a landing on the island nation of Comoros. Yemeni officials said a teenage girl survived.

The crash came two years after aviation officials reported faults with the plane, an Airbus 310 flying the last leg of a journey from Paris and Marseille to Comoros, with a stop in Yemen to change planes. Most of the passengers were from Comoros, a former French colony. Sixty-six on board were French nationals.

Khaled el-Kaei, the head of Yemenia airline’s public relations office, said a 14-year-old girl survived the crash. And Yemen’s embassy in Washington issued a statement saying a young girl survived and was taken to a hospital. It also said five bodies were recovered.

There were earlier reports that a 5-year-old boy survived. El-Kaei said that was not known and the airline had lost contact with its office in Comoros because of bad weather.

Yemeni civil aviation deputy chief Mohammed Abdul Qader said the flight data recorder had not been found and it was too early to speculate on the cause of the crash. But he said the wind was 40 miles per hour (61 kph) as the plane was landing in the middle of the night.

“The weather was very bad,” he said, adding the windy conditions hampered rescue efforts.