- Title: LEBANON: FUNERALS OF BENIN AIRCRASH VICTIMS
- Date: 29th December 2003
- Summary: (W4) KHARAYEB, LEBANON (DECEMBER 29, 2003) (REUTERS) 1. WIDE /PAN OF WOMEN GATHERED AROUND COFFIN 0.07 2. SMV WOMAN CRYING HOLDING UP PHOTO OF VICTIM 0.11 3. SMV WOMAN AND CHILD 0.25 4. SCU OLD WOMAN WITH PHOTO CRYING 0.30 5. VARIOUS OF MEN CARRYING OUT COFFIN/ WOMEN WEEPING 0.44 6. WIDE OF MAN GRIEVING 0.50 7. VARIOUS OF COFFINS BEING CARRIED THROUGH STREETS (2 SHOTS) 1.01 8. WIDE OF CROWDS FOLLOWING COFFINS 1.05 9. SMV MEN BY COFFINS 1.08 10. WIDE OF CROWD SURROUNDING COFFINS COVERED WITH IRANIAN FLAGS 1.12 11. SMV MEN GRIEVING 1.15 12. VARIOUS OF COFFINS/ FUNERAL CEREMONY (4 SHOTS) 1.26 13. VARIOUS OF COFFINS BEING CARRIED THROUGH STREETS (2 SHOTS) 1.41 14. SMV WOMEN WATCHING FROM ABOVE 1.43 15. SMV MEN MARCHING IN FUNERAL PROCESSION 1.47 16. TOP VIEW FUNERAL PROCESSION 1.58 Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
- Embargoed: 13th January 2004 12:00
- Keywords:
- Location: KHARAYEB, LEBANON
- Country: Lebanon
- Reuters ID: LVAE3NUXB3IBX5WCQOM9NA0G8PQX
- Story Text: Funerals held in Lebanon for victims of Benin air crash.
Crowds gathered in the village of Kharayeb on
Monday (December 29) for the funerals of nine victims of
last Thursday's (December 25) plane crash over the West
African country of Benin.
Women wept over the coffins before they were taken out
for a mass funeral procession.
140 people were killed when the Beirut-bound plane
smashed into the sea moments after takeoff from the
country's main city of Cotonou. Twenty one people survived
the crash.
A French military plane carrying the corpses of 77
Lebanese and two Iranians arrived at Beirut International
airport on Sunday (December 28) night, accompanied by 30
family members and Lebanese divers who had helped retrieve
the bodies. Red Cross ambulances took the coffins from the
plane and immediately began transportation to home towns
and villages across Lebanon.
The two Iranians are due to be flown home from Beirut.
Reports indicated an explosion forced the plane to veer
into a building and crash onto the nearby shore line.
Statements from the survivors describe a collision of some
sort involving the right wing of the plane.
Lebanon's Foreign Minister Jean Obeid, who flew to
Benin after the crash and returned home on Saturday with 15
survivors, said the plane appeared to have been overloaded.
Airport officials in Benin said the aircraft had
trouble retracting its undercarriage but did not rule out
that it may have been overloaded.
Divers have recovered the black boxes from the plane
and an investigation has been launched.
The plane was first used by the Guinean-registered
company Union des Transporteurs Africains (UTA) in
September this year.
The victims also included 15 Bangladeshi army officers
returning from U.N. peacekeeping duties in Sierra Leone and
Liberia. Others were from Conakry, Guinea, where the flight
originated.
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