The Department of International Relations is working through the passenger list of the Afriqiyah Airways Airbus that crashed in Libya at the end of its trip from Johannesburg on Wednesday to verify if there were South Africans aboard.
“Our ambassador in Tripoli did confirm that there were South Africans. We are trying to verify that information through the passenger list,” said spokesperson Nomfanelo Kota of the craft that had 93 passengers and 11 crew.
Agencies reported that 61 Dutch people died, and that a Dutch child was the only survivor.
However, a statement from the airline said it had taken casualties to hospitals in the area. Kota said they were also investigating this.
Members of the public were also making enquiries, and once these verifications had been concluded, the department would be able to provide further information.
The department had activated an emergency operations room, which, said Kota, had been busy since news of the crash broke.
The number to use is 012 351 1000 and callers must request the consular section.
South Africa’s ambassador to Libya had also activated an operations centre with other Southern African Development Community ambassadors to act as a reception centre for South Africans who want to travel to the North African country to identify the bodies of their loved ones.
The ambassador was also interacting with the airline, and once identities had been verified, they would be in contact with families.
The airline said that it would transport relatives to Tripoli where they would also be given accommodation.
Libyan immigration authorities would grant a visa on arrival, and there would be no need for translation to Arabic of their passports.
The Libyan number to call is +218 91 371 9588 and the airline asked that journalists not use that number so that it can stay open for relatives.
Condolences
Transport Minister Sbu Ndebele sent condolences to the families of those involved in the crash.
The Libyan civil aviation authorities would investigate the incident because it occurred in their country.
Airbus spokesperson Linden Burns said that so far it had established that the plane crashed short of the runway threshold during its approach to land.
The plane was delivered from the production line in Toulouse, France, in September 2009 and was a relatively new aircraft. The wide-bodied aircraft with two aisles down the main cabin had logged about 1 600 flying hours on about 420 flights.
That particular model had been in service since 1998 when they were first delivered into service.
An Airbus technical team of aviation safety advisers and engineering flight specialists were on its way from Toulouse to Libya on Wednesday to begin its own investigation.
Burns said television footage indicated there had been recovery of the flight records and retrieval of the “black boxes”, but the investigators would have to decipher the information.
On the airline’s website, it says it prides itself on linking African countries, and working against what it says is a monopoly imposed by international carriers over mail and air cargo operations on the continent.
It describes its fleet as a “very modern all Airbus fleet”.
“Afriqiyah has played a key role in the development of Libyan and African aviation,” it said. — Sapa