COTONOU, Benin, 26 December 2003 — More than 80 people, mostly Lebanese, were killed yesterday when a passenger plane bound for Beirut crashed into the sea shortly after takeoff from the West African nation of Benin, Lebanese officials and witnesses said.
As many as 200 passengers and crew were on United Transit Airlines Flight 141 from Cotonou, Benin’s capital, when the plane went down at 2:55 p.m. (1355 GMT), Jerome Dandjinou, a senior airport security official said.
Airport officials in Beirut said 140 people were on the Guinean-owned plane and at least 60 people died. There was no word on what caused the crash.
Dozens of bodies floated among the plane’s wreckage about 150 meters off a Cotonou beach and local residents scrambled into the waters to search for survivors and recover the dead.
Local media said at least 22 people survived the crash. Their identities were not disclosed.
Benin President Mattieu Kerekou also visited the crash site.
Television images showed pieces of the plane lying in the surf: a shorn-off landing gear, the cockpit and the rear part of the fuselage, along with an engine. Tangled wires and metal hung from the ripped-open fuselage.
Airport officials in Beirut said the Boeing 727 had been chartered by two Lebanese men, and most of the passengers were believed to be returning home for the Christmas holidays.
Thousands of Lebanese immigrants live and work in West African countries.
Hours after the news broke, the flight was still appearing on the screen, with an arrival time of 11 p.m. (2100 GMT) at the Beirut Airport.
