Yemen has decided to reopen the investigation into the crash of the Yemenia airplane into the Indian Ocean off Comoros in mid-2009, government sources told Yemen Post on Thursday.
The decision came after the council of ministers this week discussed a report by the transport minister Waed Bathib which revealed new information about the crash including that it might not be an accident, the sources said.
The council formed a panel comprising of the ministers of transport, foreign affairs legal affairs as well as chairman of the board of directors of Yemenia Airways and head of the Yemeni civil aviation and metrology authority to reinvestigate the crash.
The panel is supposed to seek assistance from specialized firms and lawyers to reinvestigate and report the outcomes in a month, they added.
The airbus A310 flight originated in Paris on June 30, 2009, and was transporting about 153 people, mostly French citizens, to the Comoros islands . Only a teenager survived and the other 152 passengers and the crew died. Not all bodies were recovered after weeks of search by Yemeni, French and US rescue teams.
The crash remained mysterious after the outcomes of the investigation into the crash by Yemen, France and Comoros with assistance from the US were not revealed.
Months after the first crash by a Yemenia plane in the sea, different reports surfaced, with some saying that a technical problem was behind the crash and others suggesting a missile by one of the French warships in the Ocean might hit the plane unintentionally.
The two governments did not comment on the reports.