Yemenia
Yemenia (Arabic: اليمنية), is the national airline of Yemen, based in Sana'a. It operates scheduled domestic and international passenger flights to destinations in Africa and the Middle East, as well as to Asia and Europe out of its hubs at Sana'a International Airport, and to a smaller extent Aden International Airport. Yemenia is a member of the Arab Air Carriers Organization. As of 30 March 2015, the airline was forced to suspend all operations until further notice, mainly due to the current bombings in Yemen that also damaged Sana'a International Airport.
History
Early years
Yemenia dates its origins back to Yemen Airlines, a company that was founded in the second half of the 1940s and owned by Ahmad bin Yahya, then King of Yemen.
When the Yemen Arab Republic was proclaimed in 1962, Yemen Airlines was issued a new airline licence on 4 August of that year (which remains valid until today), thus becoming the flag carrier of the country, with its head office in the Ministry of Communication Building in Sana'a. In 1967, the airline entered a co-operation with United Arab Airlines, which lasted until 1972. During that period, it was known as Yemen Arab Airlines.
Yemenia Flight 626
Yemenia Flight 626 was an Airbus A310-324 twin-engine jet airliner, operated by Yemenia, operating as a scheduled international flight from Sana'a, Yemen, to Moroni, Comoros, that crashed on 30 June 2009 at around 1:50 am local time (22:50 on 29 June, UTC) while on approach to Prince Said Ibrahim International Airport, killing all but one of the 153 passengers and crew on board. The sole survivor, 14-year-old Bahia Bakari, was found clinging to wreckage, after floating in the ocean for thirteen hours. Bakari was released from the hospital on 23 July 2009, approximately one month after the crash.
The final report on the incident concluded that the crew's inappropriate flight control inputs led to an aerodynamic stall. The report also noted that the crew did not react to the warnings being issued by the aircraft.
Aircraft
The aircraft was an Airbus A310-324 twin-engine jetliner, registration 7O-ADJ, manufactured in 1990 as serial number 535. It was in service for 19 years and 3 months, and had accumulated 51,900 flight hours on about 17,300 flights by the time of the accident.
