Filipina stewardess in Yemeni plane crash identified

Unidentified relatives weep after reading the list of passengers on board a Yemeni plane that crashed in the Indian Ocean on Tuesday. APMANILA, Philippines - A Filipina flight attendant was confirmed to be on board the Yemeni passenger jet that plunged into the Indian Ocean on Tuesday, officials said Thursday.

The Philippine Embassy in Saudi Arabia, which has jurisdiction over Philippine nationals in Yemen, identified the stewardess on Thursday as Camille Lou Castillo Libron, 26 years old and single.

The embassy obtained the information from Yemeni national Jana Khalid and his Filipino wife Jana Garcia, who were co-workers of Libron.

Meanwhile, the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) in Manila said it had received word from the family of Libron that she was on board the plane.

The in-flight manager of Yemenia Airways relayed the news to Libron's family, the DFA said in a statement.

GMANews.TV called Yemenia Airways Inc. on Thursday and received confirmation from an airline official that a “Filipina air hostess" was on board the Airbus 310-300 plane. However, the official refused to provide additional information.

The Yemenie jetliner was carrying 147 passengers and 11 crew members when it crashed off the island nation of Comoros as it attempted to land amid severe air turbulence. The Associated Press reported that most of the passengers were from Comoros, while 66 were French nationals.

A 14-year-old girl, Bahia Bakari, was the lone survivor. She was plucked out from the sea 10 hours after drifting in the ocean. Reports said Bakari sustained minor injuries after she was ejected from the airplane moments after it crashed.

The Yemeni plane crash is the second air tragedy this year that included a Filipino.

On May 31, Filipino seafarer Arden Jugueta was among the 228 passengers of Air France flight 447 that crashed off the Atlantic Ocean. [See: Pinoy seaman in Atlantic plane crash was supposed to go home]

The tragedy — and dwindling hopes that anyone else made it out alive — prompted an outcry in the Comoros. Residents complained of lack of seat belts on Yemenia flights and planes so overcrowded that passengers had to stand in the aisles.

The Comoros, a former French colony of 700,000 people, is an archipelago of three main islands situated 1,800 miles south of Yemen, between Africa's southeastern coast and the island of Madagascar. - Joseph Holandes Ubalde, GMANews.TV with AP
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