An Airbus A330-200 operated by Yemen's state airline Yemenia Air that took off from Paris has disappeared between Yemen and Comoros Islands with 153 people on board, an airport source said Tuesday. Comoros Islands are located 190 miles northwest of Madagascar and a similar distance east of the mainland of Africa.

According to AFP, the plane left Paris' Charles de Gaulle airport on Monday and traveled to Marseille and then the Yemeni capital Sanaa before heading towards Moroni.

The aircraft -- which was due to have landed in the capital of the Indian Ocean archipelago at 2300 GMT Monday -- disappeared from radar screens, the airport source conveyed. A crisis task force was set up at Charles de Gaulle airport early Tuesday.

A Yemenia official said one survivor rescued. "We don’t know if there are any survivors,” Idi Nadhoim, vice president of Comoros, said earlier from the airport at Moroni, according to Reuters.

At Tuesday morning, the Higher Committee on Monitoring Aviation Accidents said some bodies have been seen at the crash site.

A Yemeni committee led by Minister of Transport has been set up to probe the crash, initially blamed on bad weather, SABA news agency reported.

Rescuer teams, including foreign ships and planes, are searching for any survivors.

Preliminary information revealed that an oil spot was seen 16-17 nautical miles off the port of Moroni in the Comoros Islands. The plane was carrying 153 passengers including three infants and a crew of 11.  

© 2009 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)