- Title: ALGERIA: TECHNICAL GLITCH CAUSES MILITARY AIRCRAFT TO CRASH INTO A POPULATED AREA
- Date: 1st July 2003
- Summary: (W6) BENI MERED, ALGERIA (JUNE 30, 2003) (REUTERS) WIDE CRASH SITE AFTER ALGERIAN HERCULES MILITARY AIRCRAFT CRASHED INTO HOUSES SOUTH OF ALGIERS, KILLING AT LEAST TWELVE PEOPLE; SLV DAMAGED RESIDENTIAL BUILDINGS (5 SHOTS) LAS PEOPLE ON ROOFTOP POINTING TO WHERE PLANE CRASHED / TILT DOWN TO CROWDS BELOW (SOUNDBITE) (French) MOHAMMED HAMMADI, COMMANDER OF THE BOUFARIK MILITARY AIRBASE, SAYING "A commission to investigate the crash should get here any minute, it's already been set up with a General, it should gethere very soon." SCU PIECE OF AIRCRAFT; SLV INVESTIGATORS AT SCENE; SLV VEHICLES PARKED NEARBY; SLV PEOPLE SEARCHING THROUGH OPEN AREA (9 SHOTS) CLOSE-UP OF BROKEN AIRCRAFT; MV CHILDREN HOLDING PIECES OF BROKEN AIRCRAFT (2 SHOTS)
- Embargoed: 16th July 2003 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: BENI MERED, ALGERIA
- City:
- Country: Algeria
- Topics: Disasters,Defence / Military,Transport
- Reuters ID: LVA5M87QUCLLGVS6C1KN0WF35S85
- Aspect Ratio:
- Story Text: A technical glitch caused an Algerian military aircraft on a training mission to crash into a populated area just south of the capital Algiers on Monday, killing 12 people.
At least 12 people died on Monday (June 30, 2003) when an Algerian Hercules military aircraft on a training flight crashed into houses in a town just south of Algiers.
Eyewitnesses in a residential neighbourhood near the base said the crash was like an "earthquake."
The commander of the nearby Boufarik military airbase, Mohammed Hammadi, told reporters a technical failure caused the plane, which had taken off from his airbase, to crash.
He said 12 people had been confirmed dead, including four crew members. Five injured had been taken to hospital.
"A commission to investigate the crash should get here any minute, it's already been set up with a General, it should get here very soon," Hammadi said.
Other military and rescue officials at the scene said earlier up that to 17 died when the blazing plane plunged into the small town of Beni Mered, some 30 km (18 miles) south of the capital Algiers on the Mediterranean coast.
Rescue workers said bodies were badly burned.
The Hercules C130, carrying no cargo, crashed 50 minutes after take-off from Boufarik, Hammadi said. The Hercules is popular among armed forces around the world and is also used by international organisations such as the United Nations.
Some five residential buildings were completely charred by fire and were partially destroyed.
In March, a Boeing 737 aircraft owned by state airline Air Algerie crashed deep in the Algerian Sahara desert, killing 102 people in the country's worst air accident since the North African country gained independence from France in 1962. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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