Airbus Crashes On Approach In Libya

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An Airbus A330-200 crashed on approach to the Tripoli airport in Libya on Wednesday morning, killing 103, with only one survivor, a child from the Netherlands. The volcanic ash from Iceland didn’t seem to be a factor in the region, according to news reports. Visibility at the time of the crash was reportedly hazy, with a cloud layer at 300 feet. The airplane was delivered to Afriqiyah Airways last September and had accumulated about 1,600 flight hours. It was on final approach to the airport’s main runway, approaching from the east, when it hit the ground near the runway threshold and broke apart. Investigators have retrieved the airplane’s voice and data recorders.

Pictures of the debris field show widely scattered small fragments of the aircraft. Libyan officials said they did not suspect terrorism. Afriqiyah Airways was founded in 2001 and is fully owned by the Libyan government. The airline operates only Airbus aircraft and has passed all of its recent safety inspections. It is not included on the European Union’s list of 300 banned airlines. More than half of the passengers were Dutch, with others on board from the U.K., South Africa, and Libya.

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