166 survive jet crash

Press, 9 August 1980, Page 9

166 survive jet crash

NZPA-Reuter I Nouakchott, Mauritania! Trawlers and rescue boats' saved 166 Rumanians after a; Soviet-built Tupolev airliner! crashed into the sea off Mauritania yesterday as it was coming into land. The Mauritanian civil aviation director (Mr Kebir; Ould Sellamy) said that one person was dead and another missing after the earlymorning crash. First reports

I said wrongly that all aboardi i had died. j I The official Rumanian l ; news agency, Agerpress, ! said that aircraft, belonging to the Rumanian airline Tarom, hit the water about [3oom short of the runway at the north Mauritanian town] It.’ Nouadhibou. i Mauritanian radio said the 150 passengers and 18 crew aboard were all Rumanian and Mr Sellamy added that!

li Mauritanian rescue boats land Rumanian trawlers i 1 brought the survivors] , ashore. : ; Rumania and other East; * European countries have! : fishing agreements with; some African States, allow-! ring their ships to fish off' •'the African coast. Most of (.these aboard the plane were said to be fishermen flying in to replace crews on the /boats that rescued them. ;