Families await bodies in Benin
2003-12-27 08:22
Cotonou - Mourning relatives watched from a debris-littered shore as divers retrieved bodies from a jet that crashed off the West African nation of Benin with 161 people on board.
More than 20 people, including the pilot, survived the Christmas Day crash. Dozens of others were still missing and feared dead, officials said Friday.
"I can't bear to think what has become of them," said Karim Jumblat, a Lebanese man waiting for news of three brothers who were heading home to spend the holidays with their parents.
"If only they had waited a few days more," said Jumblat, who was to follow his brothers a few days later, wiping away tears.
Another man fainted as authorities brought his wife's body to shore on Friday.
A day earlier, they recovered his three-year-old daughter. Like many other Lebanese who worked in West Africa, they had been heading home to spend Christmas with relatives.
The Boeing 727, carrying mostly Lebanese, clipped a building at the end of the runway and plunged into the Atlantic Ocean on Thursday, scattering bodies and debris along the beach and into the sea.
Some died of their wounds
Lebanese foreign minister Jean Obeid, who flew to Cotonou on Friday, said 113 bodies had been recovered.
There were 22 survivors, he said, including the pilot. Some who initially survived the crash later died of their wounds.
The flight originated in the Guinean capital, Conakry, and stopped in Freetown, Sierra Leone, picking up Lebanese along the way. Thousands of Lebanese work in West Africa.
One survivor, Hamza Hamoud, said he was traveling home to Lebanon with nine friends.
"During takeoff we were laughing, playing around," said the 28-year-old businessman, pacing a Cotonou hospital with bandaged arms. "I felt the plane hit something and suddenly we were in the water."
Hamoud swam to safety, then helped fishermen save others.
"All my friends are dead. All nine of them," he said.
The plane broke apart on impact, hurtling a severed cockpit on to the beach. The body of the destroyed aircraft lay partially submerged in the water; an engine lay in the surf.
Thousands of onlookers thronged the accident scene. A few looters rifled through debris, shredded clothes and ripped luggage, pocketing cellphones and cash.
Benin's chief of army staff, Fernand Amoussou, said earlier Friday that one of the plane's two black boxes had been found.
But, Benin foreign affairs minister Rogatien Biaou later said that report was wrong.
The French Defense Ministry said in a statement from Paris that it was dispatching navy divers to help the recovery and investigation at the request of Benin's government.
France also agreed to send a military transport plane to Cotonou to help repatriate bodies.
- AP