BEIRUT, Dec 27: One of the Lebanese survivors of the Christmas Day plane crash in the west African state of Benin said Saturday he had cheated death by being seated at the rear of the Boeing 727 which plunged nose-first into the sea.

“I heard a deafening sound just as the plane took off,” said 35-year-old Nabil Hashem, one of a handful of survivors of the crash which claimed at least 130 lives.

“Then the craft plunged into the sea. I passed out and when I came round I was floating near bodies,” Mr Hashem said after his arrival back in Beirut.

“At the moment of impact, I saw passengers thrown out of their seats ... and then slide towards me on the carpet, then nothing else,” he said.

“I came round still strapped in my seat, surrounded by bodies and debris. I could undo my belt despite a pain in my shoulder and I swam towards the shore where Benin fishermen pulled me from the water.”

Hashem regarded himself as lucky to be alive despite fracturing his shoulder, as well as suffering cuts and bruises to his face, arms and legs.

The passenger seated next to Hashem, Khodr Farhat, also sustained injuries to his lung and thorax but his life is not in danger.

In contrast, the vast majority of passengers seated either in the front or middle of the plane were killed.

Eleven survivors, most of them Lebanese expatriates who had been heading home for the holidays, arrived early Saturday in Beirut.—AFP