ISMAILIA, Egypt, 7 May 2007 — A plane belonging to the multinational observer force that monitors the Egyptian-Israeli border crashed yesterday in the Sinai Peninsula, killing nine people, most of them French, security sources said.
The sources said the aircraft crashed on a road and hit a truck, which exploded. They said four burned bodies were found in the wreckage, and that authorities were searching for the remains of five other passengers from the plane.
“I heard a loud explosion and saw fire. I saw remains on a wide area. There was no one alive,” said Abdel Qader Salman, a Bedouin man from central Sinai, where the crash occurred.
Security sources said they believed the crash was caused by mechanical problems, saying the plane went down while trying to make an emergency landing. Foul play was not suspected.
Eight French nationals were on board the plane, a twin-engine propeller plane that was on a training and orientation mission at the time of the crash, the director-general of the multinational force said.
Director-General Normand St. Pierre said he was checking into reports that a ninth person of a different nationality was also on board. Egyptian security sources said a ninth person was on the plane, and said he was a Canadian soldier.
