Dozens killed in Libya plane crash

A Libyan plane arriving from South Africa crashed on Wednesday at Tripoli airport, killing all 105 people on board, a security official told Agence France-Presse.

Among the dead were 94 passengers and 11 crew members, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

There was no immediate indication of the cause of the crash, which occurred as the Afriqiyah Airways plane was landing after a flight from Johannesburg at about 6am local time

“All 94 passengers and 11 crew members who were on board were killed,” the official said.

However, according Mohmoud Gebeu, from the South African embassy in Libya, an eight-year-old child survived.

Afriqiyah Airways said on its website that it operates an Airbus fleet.

It started operations with five leased planes and signed a contract with Airbus at an exhibition in Paris in 2007 for the purchase of 11 new planes, the website said.

It was founded in April 2001 and at first fully owned by the Libyan state. The company’s capital was later divided into shares to be managed by the Libya-Africa Investment Portfolio.

On April 21, the airline announced that flights were back to normal after disruptions due to the volcanic ash cloud from Iceland that grounded flights in Europe last month.