33 killed as Mozambique Airlines plane crashes in Namibia

PanARMENIAN.Net - A Mozambique Airlines plane carrying 33 people crashed in a remote border area, killing all on board, Namibian media reported Saturday, Nov 30, according to the Associated Press.

The plane crashed in a Namibian national park near the border with Angola and there were no survivors, said Namibian deputy police commissioner Bollen Sankwasa. An investigation of the cause was underway.

The plane was carrying 27 passengers, including 10 Mozambicans, nine Angolans, five Portuguese, and one citizen each from France, Brazil and China, said the airline. Six crew members were on board.

Flight TM470 from Maputo, the Mozambican capital, did not land as scheduled in Luanda, the Angolan capital, on Friday afternoon, and the airline initially said the plane might have landed in Rundu, in northern Namibia. It said it coordinated with aviation authorities in Namibia, Botswana and Angola to locate the missing plane.

A Namibian police helicopter joined officers on the ground in the search. The area is vast and there are no roads, making it difficult to locate the plane, said police official Willy Bampton, according to the Namibian Press Agency.

The search was conducted in the Bwabwata National Park in northeastern Namibia. Several thousand people as well as elephants, buffalo and other wildlife live in the park, which covers 6,100 square kilometers (2,360 square miles).

Airlines from Mozambique are among carriers banned in the European Union because of safety concerns.

Tony Tyler, director general and CEO of the International Air Transport Association, said earlier this week that none of the 25 African members of the association, which include Mozambique Airlines, had an accident in 2012.

"But the overall safety record for Africa remains a problem that we must fix," Tyler said at a meeting of the African Airlines Association in Kenya, accordihng to the AP. He said African aviation comprises about 3 percent of global airline traffic, and last year it accounted for nearly half of the fatalities on Western-built jets.

Mozambique Airlines uses Boeing, Bombardier and Embraer aircraft.

CEO Marlene Mendes Manave said in a statement on the airline's website that the airline grew 8 percent in the first half of this year, compared to the same period in 2012.