ALGIERS, 7 March 2003 — An Air Algerie jet crashed shortly after takeoff in southern Algeria yesterday, killing 102 people on board, the airline said. One person survived.
The crash of the Boeing 737 occurred minutes after the plane left Tamanrasset bound for the capital, Algiers.
“There was a mechanical problem on takeoff,” said a spokesman for the airline, Hamid Khamdi. He said he had no other information about the cause of the crash. “Unfortunately, we know only of one survivor,” he said. There were 97 passengers on the plane and six crew members, airline officials said. Khamdi said the passengers’ nationalities were not known.
He said 39 passengers were headed for Algiers and that 58 others were due to disembark at a midway stop, Ghardaia.
Prime Minister Ali Benflis set up a crisis unit at airports in Algiers and Tamanrasset to deal with the crash, thought to be the first in the history of Algerian commercial aviation. An investigative unit was also set up at the Tamanrasset airport.
Interior Minister Yazid Zerhouni and Transportation Minister Abdelmalek Sellal were headed to the scene.
Tamanrasset, in the Hoggar Mountains, is a stop for Sahara Desert travelers in a region of ancient archaeological sites and prehistoric paintings and engravings.
The site is also a meeting place for Tuaregs, nomadic people known for their blue robes. Tamanrasset is about 1,600 km south of Algiers. According to the Arab Air Carriers Organization, the airline was established in 1953. Air Algerie flights to Paris were suspended for two years from the summer of 1995, after a hijacking of an Air France plane by extremists.
Most international carriers stopped flights to Algeria in 1994, immediately after the plane was hijacked on Christmas Eve by the Armed Islamic Group.
