EgyptAir plane crashes in Tunis

An EgyptAir plane with 55 passengers and crew on board crashed yesterday as it was attempting to land at Tunis airport and at least 15 people were confirmed dead, airport and government officials said.

"About 15 dead have been accounted for so far," Egypt's ambassador in Tunis, Mahdy Fathallah, said on state-run television after the plane came down in fog and heavy rain.

A senior Tunisian government official said some of the passengers on the EgyptAir flight 843, believed to be a Boeing 737, had survived and 13 had been taken to hospital. Speaking before Fathallah, he gave a figure of at least five dead.

"Many others were wounded, including 13 who have been taken to hospital," the official told Reuters.

A witness of the crash said the plane came down in the Nahli area of Tunis in wet weather. The mountainous crash site was very difficult to reach, but rescue workers had managed to get to the scene and were evacuating the injured.

Cairo airport officials said the plane had been carrying 55 passengers and crew. One airport source said there were 20 Egyptian passengers, eight staff and 27 passengers of other nationalities on board. He said the plane came down 19 km from Tunis airport.

Tunis airport officials said the plane's landing gear had failed to open during the approach into Tunis airport. The pilot had made another circuit before attempting a fresh landing when the plane crashed, the officials said.

EgyptAir information officer Ahmed Fathi told Reuters the flight was EgyptAir 843, flying from Cairo to Tunis. He did not give any further details.

The crash occurred three days after a BAC 1-11-500 airliner ploughed into a poor suburb of the northern Nigerian city of Kano, killing 148 people, including dozens on the ground.

EgyptAir last suffered a major air disaster when a Boeing 767 plunged into the Atlantic Ocean off the U.S. coast in October 1999, killing all 217 people on board.