New York, NY–Tanzania authorities announced on Tuesday, July 7, 2009, thirteen bodies washed up along the coast of Mafia Island, which is just northeast of the of the Yemeni airliner crash site. Officials believe the unidentified victims are from the tragic Yemeni passenger airliner that crashed into the Indian Ocean last week, according to Reuters.
Officials of Mafia Island stated the unidentified bodies were found floating in the water and washed up on various locations of the island. Officials also claimed the bodies were first found on Monday, but the choppy waters made it difficult for recovery teams to retrieve the deceased. Additional debris of the airliner was also found, including plane seats and other equipment thought to be part of the wing of the downed Yemeni aircraft. Tanzania and Mafia Island Investigators are still trying to determine if the debris and dead were from the ill-fated airplane.
Yemeni commercial airliner, Flight 626, which had 153 people on board, had only one survivor, a 12-year-old girl. The remaining passengers, pilots, and crew members on board the plane have been presumed dead. The airline crashed into the Indian Ocean on June 29, 2009, while en route to Moroni, the capital of Comoros. The French military has located the beacon signal transmitted from the black boxes aboard the Yemeni plane. Military officials suspect it will take a few days for recovery teams to retrieve the flight data recorders from the deep waters of the Indian Ocean.
News contact: New York personal injury attorney Jonathan C. Reiter an aviation accident lawyer. Empire State Building, 350 Fifth Avenue, Suite 2811, New York, NY 10118. Telephone (212) 736-0979. www.jcreiterlaw.com
