Rabat: A military transport plane slammed
into a mountainside in bad weather in southern Morocco on Tuesday killing all 80 people on board, hospital and military sources
said.
The army said 78 people were killed on the spot and
two rushed to hospital after the Hercules C-130 crashed on the
edge of the Sahara desert in Morocco`s worst military aviation
disaster.
A hospital source later told AFP that the injured died
of their wounds.
Authorities earlier reported that 81 people were
aboard the doomed plane but it emerged later that one
passenger did not board in Laayoune in the Western Sahara and
was mistakenly included in the total.
The plane crashed into a mountain northeast of
Guelmim, located about 830 kilometres south of the capital
Rabat, the army said in a statement.
Most of those onboard the aircraft were soldiers
flying from Laayoune in Western Sahara to the coastal city of
Agadir. But the army said civilians, including family members,
were also on the flight.
King Mohammed VI "has sent a message of condolence to
the families of the victims in his role as the supreme leader
of the FAR (Royal Armed Forces)" an official said.
The army statement blamed the accident on "bad weather
conditions".
"Above all, it was the fog and bad weather conditions
that are believed to be behind this accident. But for the
moment, we don`t have enough information," an interior
ministry official said.
Bureau Report
