French Domestic Airbus With 96 Aboard Crashes; 9 Survive

A French Airbus A-320 carrying 96 people crashed Monday night in snow and fog on a wooded ridge in eastern France. At least nine survivors, including a toddler, were found after a four-hour search.

The 20-month-old girl was the only person to emerge unscathed from the wreckage of the state-run Air Inter flight, police said. The smoking debris was strewn about a snowy pine forest.

Two of the survivors were critically injured. Most or all of the survivors, including a boy of about 8, were seated in the rear of the plane, rescuers said.

Crews worked in 20-degree cold to remove the injured and the dead from the crash site near Mont Sainte-Odile, a 2,500-foot peak in the Vosges Mountains 30 miles southwest of Strasbourg near the German border. The injured were brought to a makeshift medical center, a 20-minute walk away, then taken to hospitals in Strasbourg and Obernai.

“They were very shocked,” said Jean-Pierre Stucki, correspondent for French television channel TF1. “They had been waiting in the cold for help for several hours.”

The plane was en route from Lyon to Strasbourg when radio contact was lost shortly before the scheduled landing at 7:25 p.m. local time, officials said.

One of the survivors, whose name was not given, told France Info radio that the plane was in descent when, without warning, it crashed through the trees.

He said a fire broke out and that he and some others, including an attendant and the boy, made their way through a hole in the fuselage.

Air Inter, which works closely with Air France, said in a communique that it did not know what caused the crash. The plane, put into service in December, 1988, had no record of mechanical trouble in 6,312 hours of flying time. It was checked earlier Monday, the airline said.

Questions about the efficiency of the A-320’s guidance system were raised after two previous crashes of the plane.

After the Air Inter plane’s disappearance, about 1,000 people searched the rugged, fog-shrouded area, slowed by rain and snow.

Two army helicopters and a Mirage F-1 jet fighter equipped with infrared surveillance equipment assisted in the search.

The smell of fuel oil wafted through the mountain air. Police set up barricades to keep gawkers away.

Flight IT-5148, which left Lyon at 6:30 p.m. local time, was carrying 90 passengers and a crew of six, Air Inter said.