54 Die In Plane Crash

Press, Volume CIV, Issue 30724, 13 April 1965, Page 17

54 Die In Plane Crash

(N Z P.A.-Reuter —Copyright) DAMASCUS, April 12. Rescuers today worked at recovering 54 charred bodies from the wreckage of a Jordanian airliner scattered over a sunny Syrian hillside.

AU 50 passengers and the crew of four died when the aircraft, carrying tourists from Beirut to Cairo, burst into flames and crashed on

to the crest of Kanisa mountain last night. Syria and Jordan launched a joint on-the-spot investigation into the crash. There were 47 Belgian tourists, two Dutch and one Swiss passenger aboard the Dart Herald airliner. The crew was Jordanian.

There were 32 women passengers, 17 men and a nine-year-old boy aboard the crashed plane. The Belgian Embassy here said arrangements were being made for the flight home of about 15 bodies from the crash on the 2000 ft mountain

about 15 miles from Damascus. The other bodies were unrecognisable. Mr Peter Salah, administrative manager of Jordanian Airlines, .said the Britishbuilt Dart Herald was carrying customers of the Omar Khayam Tourist Company. In London, Mr Nicholas Tarayan. the 44-year-old Armenian from the Lebanon, said all the passengers were clients of his company, Omar Khayam Overseas Tours, who were going to Cairo from Beirut.

Mr Salah said that when the plane was five minutes out of Damascus last night the pilot, Captain Hakam Statieh, radioed the Damascus control tower that he would be flying over Damascus airport in five minutes. That was the last message received from Captain Statieh, the airline’s chief pilot. Airline spokesmen said the plane inexplicably caught fire. The photograph, received by cable, shows the crashed airliner on the hillside.