16 Killed in French Airliner Crash
An Air France plane crashed into a wooded area as it approached Bordeaux airport Monday, killing all 16 aboard, officials said.
The Brazilian-made Embraer Brasilia aircraft, carrying 13 passengers and three crew members, burst into flames when it hit the ground in foggy conditions a few hundred yards short of the runway at Bordeaux’s Merignac airport.
Local gendarmes said the plane narrowly missed a day-care center. No one on the ground was hurt.
Flight 1919 was on a flight from Brussels to Bordeaux, which was to have originated in Amsterdam but was changed because of bad weather. Some of the passengers were Belgian children going to spend Christmas in southwest France, an Air France spokesman said.
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