RABAT, (Reuters) – At least 78 people were killed yesterday when a Moroccan military transport plane crashed into a mountain in the south of the country during bad weather, the military said in a statement carried by the state news agency.
The military said there were three injured survivors so far from the crash, which happened when a Hercules C-130 aircraft was trying to land in Guelmim, having flown north from the disputed Western Sahara territory.
The crash is Morocco’s worst known air disaster since 1973, when 105 people were killed after a Royal Air Maroc aircraft crashed near the capital Rabat.
A resident in the Guelmim area told Reuters there was thick fog in at the time of the crash, which occurred at 9 a.m.(0800 GMT) some 730 km (450 miles) south of Rabat.
