Mueren al menos 15 personas en un accidente de avión en Túnez

TUNEZ, Túnez (CNN) -- Por lo menos 15 personas murieron este martes cuando un avión de la aerolínea EgyptAir con 60 personas a bordo se vio obligado a realizar un aterrizaje forzoso cerca de la capital de Túnez.

Unos 30 pasajeros heridos fueron evacuados a hospitales próximos a la ciudad de Túnez, dijo Oussama Romdhani, funcionario de la Agencia de Comunicaciones Tunecina.

Al parecer, el tren de aterrizaje del Boeing 737-500 no se abrió en su primera aproximación al aeropuerto Túnez-Cartago y el piloto había iniciado otra vuelta para intentar un nuevo aterrizaje cuando el avión se estrelló, explicaron funcionarios del aeropuerto.

El piloto logró sobrevivir, pero el copiloto y el resto de la tripulación murieron, dijo el embajador egipcio en Túnez, Mahdi Fattallah.

El avión destruido se encuentra en una colina de un parque situado a unos seis kilómetros del aeropuerto, dijo la agencia noticiosa The Associated Press.

Cincuenta y cinco pasajeros y cinco tripulantes iban a bordo del avión -- que volaba de El Cairo a Túnez -- cuando cayó en Nahli, en el norte de la capital tunecina.

La zona montañosa donde ocurrió el accidente es de difícil acceso, aunque los equipos de rescate consiguieron llegar hasta el lugar para iniciar la evacuación de los heridos.

La torre de control perdió el contacto con el avión pocos segundos antes del accidente, justo después de que el piloto enviara una señal de socorro, informó la agencia de noticias The Associated Press

Aparentemente, en el momento del accidente había niebla, estaba lloviendo y soplaban vientos con arena.

El incidente es el segundo desastre que sacude a EgyptAir en los últimos tres años.

Un Boeing 767 de la aerolínea egipcia se estrelló frente a las costas de Massachusetts el 29 de octubre de 1999. Las 214 personas a bordo perdieron la vida en el accidente.

La Junta Nacional de Seguridad en el Transporte de Estados Unidos atribuyó el accidente a las maniobras del copiloto, aunque sin llegar a decir que Gameel Al-Batouti estrelló el avión de forma intencionada, en una misión suicida, como se había conjeturado.

EgyptAir cuenta con 24 aviones Airbus y 19 Boeing.

El Boeing 737 es el avión más utilizado en el mundo. La serie 737-500 se comercializó en mayo de 1987.

(Con información de Reuters y Associated Press)

At least 20 killed in EgyptAir Boeing 737 crash.
Reuters

TUNIS (Reuters) - An EgyptAir Boeing 737-500 with around 62 passengers and crew on board crashed on Tuesday as it was attempting to land at Tunis airport, killing at least 20 people, rescue workers and government officials said.

A witness to the crash said the plane came down in the Nahli area of Tunis in wet and foggy weather. The mountainous crash site was difficult to reach, but rescue workers managed to get to the scene to evacuate the injured.

"At least 20 of the passengers have died," one of the rescue workers told Reuters.

A senior Tunisian government official said some of the passengers on the EgyptAir flight 843 had survived and 13 had been taken to hospital.

A Tunis resident, living near the crash site, told Reuters the plane, flying from Cairo to Tunis, hit a hill and broke into two pieces.

"I can see the two pieces from here. One crushed into the hill and the second piece is still laying beside it," he said.

He and others said about 15 passengers emerged from the wreckage of the plane, some screaming hysterically while others checked to see if other passengers were still alive.

"I saw some passengers going from one body to another as if they were looking for a loved one," said a witness.

Another said he heard one passenger screaming in an apparent Egyptian Arabic accent: "My family, my dears".

Cairo airport officials had said the plane had been carrying 55 passengers and crew, but Egypt's ambassador in Tunis, Mahdi Fathallah, said there were 55 passengers and eight crew members.

"Twenty-five people were taken to hospital and there are 18 people dead out of...63 people who were on board the plane, including eight crew," Fathallah told Al Jazeera television network monitored in Rabat.

Tunisian aviation officials gave a different figure, saying the plane was carrying 56 passengers and six crew members.

A Cairo airport source said Egyptians made up most of the passengers but people of other nationalities were also on board.

Television pictures showed the front part of the plane almost in one piece while the back was mangled wreckage.

Blankets covered the dead, surrounded by luggage and personal belongings strewn among the rocks and bushes. A bunch of plastic flowers protruded intact from a woman's bag.

Tunis airport officials said the plane's landing gear had failed to open during the approach into Tunis airport.

"When he found it difficult to handle the landing gears, he made a half circle before it (the plane) was lost from the airport radar screens," a Tunis airport official said.

The crash occurred on the same day a China Northern airliner with 103 passengers and nine crew plunged into the sea near the northeastern city of Dalian -- the first time disaster hit two planes on the same day since July 1992 when a Chinese and a Thai airliner both crashed in separate incidents.

On Saturday, an airliner ploughed into the northern Nigerian city of Kano, killing 148 people, including dozens on the ground.

EgyptAir last suffered a major air disaster when a Boeing 767-366 ER plunged into the Atlantic Ocean off the U.S. coast in October 1999, killing all 217 people on board.

The U.S. National Transportation Safety Board concluded in March that the actions of co-pilot Gamal el-Batouty probably caused the plane to nose-dive into the Atlantic.

Egypt disputes the findings and has vowed to continue investigating the cause of the crash.

EgyptAir, which was founded in 1932, has a fleet of 40 planes and flies to 95 domestic and international locations.

Boeing headquarters in Seattle said the ill-fated 737-500 was delivered in October 1991 and had logged 26,000 flight hours on 16,000 flights.

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