A military aircraft carrying 103 people crashed in Algeria’s mountainous northeast Tuesday, with a sole survivor found from one of the country’s deadliest air disasters, security and emergency officials said.
The C-130 Hercules aircraft, which crashed in the Oum El Bouaghi region, was carrying 99 passengers — soldiers and their families — as well as four crew members, a security source told AFP.
“We have found a survivor and the search continues,” emergency services official Colonel Farid Nechad told public radio, without giving further details.
The emergency services have so far recovered 71 bodies from the crash site, public radio reported.
A security source had said earlier that all on board had perished.
There was no immediate word on the condition of the lone survivor.
The plane was flying from the desert garrison town of Tamanrasset in the deep south to the city of Constantine, and lost contact with the control tower just as it was beginning its descent.
The aircraft slammed into Mount Fertas in the Oum El Bouaghi region at around midday (1100 GMT), state media quoted army spokesman Colonel Bouguern as saying.
Preliminary reports indicated that poor weather was to blame, with heavy snow and strong winds sweeping the region in recent days, the APS news agency reported.
Military and civilian personnel were deployed for a search and rescue operation, with hospitals in Constantine and nearby Ain M’Lila placed on alert in case there were any survivors, the independent El Watan newspaper reported.
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