Two Fatalities Reported Among Seven Onboard

ANN REALTIME UPDATE 11.27.08 2000 EST: A witness to Thursday's downing of an Air New Zealand A320 told a French radio station he saw the plane dive abruptly into the Mediterranean Sea as it approached to land at Perpignan.

"I could see it was an airliner because I saw two large engines. There was no fire, nothing," the witness, a local policeman, told France Info radio. "It was flying straight, then it turned brutally towards the ground. I said to myself it will never pull out and there was a big spray of water."

Reuters reports search teams have recovered the bodies of two of the seven people onboard the airliner, which was on a maintenance checkout flight following a retrofit. The airliner, one of 12 Airbus A320s operated by Air New Zealand, was slated to return to the carrier following a lease to Germany's XL Airways.

According to an Air New Zealand release, the plane was bound to Frankfurt on a ferry flight operated by XL Airways... but at least four employees with the Auckland-based carrier may have been onboard. The airliner had already been repainted in ANZ livery (shown below and at bottom).

In a sad bit of serendipity, Thursday's accident occurred on the 29th anniversary of New Zealand's worst aviation accident -- the CFIT crash of Air New Zealand 901 into the side of Mount Erebus. All 257 people onboard the DC-10 sightseeing plane were killed.

"To have this incident occur on the same day just adds to the sense of tragedy," said Air New Zealand CEO Rob Fyfe, who added he still held out hope survivors might still be found from Thursday's accident.

"I'm hopeful there still may be survivors, early indications are that the plane and debris were floating on the water, and I certainly haven't given up hope," he told a news conference in Auckland.

Earlier Reports

UPDATE 11.27.08 1321 EST: ANN is monitoring industry reports that indicate the aircraft involved in this accident is an Air New Zealand 'Freedom Air' airframe that had been leased to XL Airways of Germany. The aircraft was reported to have undergone maintenance prior to the flight (ostensibly a maintenanance test operation) before it was ditched in the Med.

The aircraft was due to return to service for Freedom Air, following the end of the XL lease. At least one fatality is now being reported in the French press and no survivors have been confirmed.

11.27.08 1147 EST: Search efforts are underway for as many as seven people onboard an Airbus A320 that ditched in the Mediterranean Sea off the southwest coast of France Thursday. 

Reuters reports the airliner was on a training flight when it crashed for as-yet unknown reasons off the coast near Perpignan, at around 1700 local time. French news channel LCI adds the plane was attempting to land when it crashed. Debris has been spotted in the water.

A spokesman for the French regional maritime authority said the aircraft was an A320, one of the most popular narrowbody airliners in service.

CNN states the aircraft wore Air New Zealand livery, though at this stage it's unknown whether the plane was a new aircraft or one already in service. The airline lists 12 A320s among its fleet of mostly Boeing aircraft, of which 10 are leased.

The accident site is approximately 315 miles from Airbus' headquarters in Toulouse.

Aero-News will update this story as more details become available.

FMI: www.airbus.com