Tuesday 26 July 2011
78 dead in Morocco military transport plane crash
Minister Khaled Naciri confirmed to The Associated Press that the plane crashed near the city of Guelmim on Tuesday. “There are people dead,” Mr. Naciri said by telephone.
He would not give a death toll or other information, saying the government was trying to pin down details.
The state news agency MAP said 78 people were killed when the Royal Armed Forces C-130 jet crashed into a mountain as it prepared to land at the Guelmim military air base.
MAP said the plane was carrying members of the Royal Armed Fores en route from Dakhla, in the disputed Western Sahara, to Kinitra in northern Morocco, and making a stop in Guelmim.
Moroccan defence officials would not comment on the crash. Officials at the military hospital in Guelmim could not be reached.
Guelmim is more than 600 km southwest of the capital Rabat, just north of the Western Sahara and a few dozen km from the Atlantic Coast.
He would not give a death toll or other information, saying the government was trying to pin down details.
The state news agency MAP said 78 people were killed when the Royal Armed Forces C-130 jet crashed into a mountain as it prepared to land at the Guelmim military air base.
MAP said the plane was carrying members of the Royal Armed Fores en route from Dakhla, in the disputed Western Sahara, to Kinitra in northern Morocco, and making a stop in Guelmim.
Moroccan defence officials would not comment on the crash. Officials at the military hospital in Guelmim could not be reached.
Guelmim is more than 600 km southwest of the capital Rabat, just north of the Western Sahara and a few dozen km from the Atlantic Coast.
