Yemenia Air Airbus 310 flight 626 en route from Yemen’s capital Sanaa to the Comoros Islands crashed on the second pass to land at the ill-equipped airport during heavy weather.
Westlake Village, California (Press Release) July 8, 2009 — A lawyer has contacted George Hatcher to dispatch a team of his consultant staff to work on the Yemenia Air crash. The latest development in this recent aviation disaster is that the thirteen bodies found by fishermen 500 miles away from the Comoros Islands may be victims who have drifted from the Yemenia Airbus crash. On its second pass at attempting a landing at the airport during a fearsome storm off the Comoros, the Yemenia Airlines Airbus flew into the ocean, killing 141 passengers and 11 crew members. This is the second Airbus lost at sea in a single month, and the crash points to an ominous trend toward a lessening of safety in aviation. Bahia’s survival and thirteen hour ordeal clutching at floating debris while suffering a broken collarbone, and too weak to climb into the rescue boat is one that clutches at our heartstrings, especially when we find out that her mother died in the crash. Bahia was flown back to her family in Marseilles. But that is not the end of the story.
Almost half of the dead were French citizens; and French citizens are up in arms over Yemenia Air. Having failed required criteria, the Airbus involved in the incident was under scrutiny, and not allowed to fly in French airspace; but the plane was allowed to regularly fly to Comoros, a poor island society with an ill-equipped airport. There is culpability to be assigned here, though it is all speculation until the black boxes are found. A 40 year veteran of litigation investigation and evaluation (including aviation,) George Hatcher explains that he was contacted by a lawyer working, “on behalf of some families, and we have dispatched a team there to assist.”
The thirteen bodies that were just found washed ashore on “Mafia Island,” some 500 miles from the site of the crash. A wing with “Airbus” scribed on it, and a plane seat were found in close proximity to the bodies. However, the black boxes have NOT been found yet; and the vast distance that the wreckage traveled bodes ill for the prospects of finding them.
There is already a group organized to protest the substandard plane accommodations. Spokesperson Farid Solihi of the protest group “SOS voyage aux Comores” has been an outspoken detractor of intolerable conditions aboard flights to and from Comoros. Hopefully the Hatcher team will be able to make contact with Solihi or some other “SOS voyage aux Comores” member.
About George Hatcher
George Hatcher is an independent generalist, a consultant dedicated to the support of the victims of aviation incidents or accidents. Known internationally, Hatcher works with well known lawyers, and develops crack teams to help support litigation, communication, and safety initiatives. To read further about the company, visit http://aircrashconsultants.com
Contact: george@georgehatcher.com
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