COTONOU, Benin, 27 December 2003 — Rescuers battled high waves yesterday to free bodies from the wreckage of an airliner which crashed into the sea off the West African state of Benin, killing at least 113 people.
The Beirut-bound Boeing 727 was carrying many Lebanese passengers heading home for Christmas holidays. It clipped a building at the end of the runway, exploded and smashed into the Atlantic Ocean.
Through the night, rescuers toiled with steel cords and a tractor to try to lift large sections of the plane’s wreckage from the shallow waters, while police used belts to beat back thousands of onlookers thronging the beach.
“As soon as we took off, I saw the whole plane crumple and people were pushed toward me by the pressure of the crash,” said Khodor Farhat, who was sitting at the back of the plane.
“Then I woke up in the water. I pushed myself to the surface and swam to the beach where some men pulled me out and took me to hospital,” he said from his bed.
Lebanese Foreign Minister Jean Obeid flew into Benin on board a plane chartered to take home bodies and survivors. A Lebanese diving team was also on board.
“The death toll is 113 and there are 22 survivors,” Benin’s Foreign Minister Rogatien Biaou said.
Rescue efforts were halted temporarily after daylight because of high seas, which complicated the work of navy divers. Fishermen swimming in the sea brought two more adult bodies to shore after daybreak.
The beach was strewn with battered suitcases, pieces of twisted metal and other debris, including a baby’s bottle. Rescuers gathered watches, wallets and other valuables.
Police began an inquiry into why the airliner belonging to the Lebanese-owned Union Transport Africaines, crashed.
Airport officials said the plane had difficulty retracting its undercarriage after takeoff.
It was not immediately known how many people were on flight UTA 141, which could carry 141 passengers and crew. Most of those on board were Lebanese but some were from Benin, Guinea and Sierra Leone.
Lebanese communities form the backbone of some economies in West Africa, running small shops and businesses in many nations.
Sheikh Mohammad Hussein Fadlallah, Lebanon’s top Shi’ite cleric urged worshippers in Beirut yesterday to pray for the dead and injured.
The doomed flight originated in Conakry, Guinea, and picked up passengers in the Sierra Leone capital Freetown and Cotonou before setting off for Beirut.
The deputy superintendent at Conakry airport said the Lebanese man who chartered the plane was on board with his wife and child.
In Conakry, hundreds of distraught people milled around the airport seeking news of family or friends aboard the airliner.
The black box voice and data recorders aboard the Boeing 727 have been recovered, a senior aviation official told reporters in Cotonou.
The cockpit of the plane suffered little damage from skidding across the runway. That made it easier to recover the equipment that registers all voice and computer activity in the cockpit.
Aviation officials have speculated that the plane was unbalanced or overloaded as it failed to take off properly.
