At least 90 dead in Cotonou plane crash, 31 survivors

At least 90 people were killed when a jet carrying members of the Lebanese business community in West Africa to Beirut crashed onto a beach shortly after take-off from Cotonou airport on Thursday, Benin's Health Minister, Celine Segnon said. A total of 31 people survived the accident and were being treated in local hospitals, she told local television on Thursday night. Television showed pictures of some of the survivors, including the co-pilot, who had face injuries. Rescuers searched through the night to find more bodies from the chartered Boeing 727-200 jet which began its flight in Conakry and stopped in Freetown and Cotonou to pick up more passengers. It was due to fly onwards to Beirut and Dubai. Eyewitnesses quoted by international news agencies said the plane appeared to have difficulty retracting its undercarriage on take-off, hit a building and crashed onto a beach about 500 metres from the end of the runway. It broke up on impact and most of the wreckage slid into the sea. There was some confusion regarding the total number of passengers on-board the Guinea-registered plane, which belonged to a small charter airline called UTA. This is owned by Lebanese interests and has no connection with a former French airline of the same name. The plane had 141 passenger seats and the Lebanese consul in Benin said he thought there were 140 people on board. Airport officials in Cotonou told IRIN that 63 passengers had boarded the plane in Benin, most of whom were members of the local Lebanese community and their families. Reuters quoted quoted police sources at Conakry airport in Guinea as saying 31 people had boarded the plane there at the start of its ill-fated journey. There was no immediate information about how many passengers boarded at Freetown in Sierra Leone. Cotonou airport closed indefinitely after the crash since the plane destroyed vital air navigation equipment installed on the top of the building which it hit. Airport officials said all flights were being diverted to Lome, 130 km to the west in neighbouring Togo. This was the fourth major air accident in Africa this year. On March 6 an Algerian Boeing 737-200 crashed on take-off from Tamanrasset in southern Algeria, killing 103 pasengers and crew. On May 8 an unknown number of passengers - possibly more than 100 - were sucked out of the rear cargo door of a Russian-built Ilyushun 76 jet in mid-air during a domestic flight in the Democratic Republic of Congo. And on July 8 a Boeing 737 of Sudan Airways crashed shortly after take-off from Port Sudan on a domestic flight to Khartoum, killing 115 passengers and crew. One child survived.