New Airbus Jetliner Crashes in France; 3 Die, 98 Hurt

A new Airbus jetliner carrying more than 130 people crashed into a forest Sunday during an air show demonstration flight, killing at least three people and injuring 98, officials said.

Many victims were believed to be first-time fliers who paid for a ride on the twin-engine Airbus A-320, which was delivered to Air France only Thursday.

“Given the state of the plane, which was completely destroyed, it’s amazing how few victims there were,” a police spokesman said.

Witnesses said the plane, which boasts a state-of-the-art electronic flight system, had just passed over the airfield site of the show when it crashed, tearing a nearly 500-foot path through the woods. Part of the plane caught fire.

A control tower official said the jet appeared to lose power as it passed low over the field in Habsheim, a village about 15 miles from the Swiss border. He said visibility was perfect.

A 25-year-old woman passenger who did not give her name was quoted by the French news service Agence France-Presse as saying she heard trees brush against the fuselage.

“From then on things went fast,” she said. “The plane hit the ground hard, and we had the feeling of an abrupt jolt. Then there was a fire in the front of the aircraft.”

Flight attendants deployed evacuation chutes, the woman said, and she and other passengers slid down and ran away, fearing an explosion.

Witnesses said many of the lives may have been saved because the A-320 landed horizontally instead of nose-diving, and its fall was cushioned by the thick forest.

A local resident who was among the first rescuers at the scene told French Radio: “I saw the captain; he only had a cut on his forehead, but he was in a state of shock. I loosened his tie. He was all white; he was traumatized.”

The resident said the first words of the pilot, Michel Asseline, were, “I wanted to boost the power, but (the plane) didn’t respond.”

Rescuers worked through the afternoon to evacuate dozens of people trapped in the plane.

Officials said 50 people were hospitalized. It was not clear how many were on the jet as there was no official passenger list. Authorities said at least 136 were aboard.

The A-320, built in France, by a European consortium, went into service in April for Air France and British Airways. It was designed for flight by a two-member crew, eliminating the navigator.

Early this year, pilots and flight engineers of Air Inter, the largest French airline, called a series of strikes to protest the use of only two cockpit members in A-320s, saying it was unsafe.

Air France has three of the aircraft, British Airways has two and Air Inter, the French domestic airline, has one, Airbus said.