KARACHI: Forty persons are feared to have been killed on Thursday [June 15] morning when an Air France Skymaster carrying 52 passengers crashed into the sea two miles South-East of Bahrein in almost the same spot where a West-bound Air France Skymaster had crashed on Tuesday with the loss of 47 lives. According to reports … 13 survivors had been picked up by the rescue party… . The bodies of 29 persons including seven children had been recovered.

… Most of the passengers were Frenchmen. The plane had left Karachi on Wednesday at 10 p.m. on its regular flight from Saigon to Paris. According to reports … the pilot … gave a signal at 3.28 a.m. to the control tower in Bahrein stating that “the weather is hazy and he is trying to land at the airport”. Just after three minutes an SOS followed. After that no contact with the plane could be made… . Search parties of helicopters were immediately sent out and the charred wreck of the plane was located in the sea nearly 2 miles south-east of Bahrein.

… A UPA message ... adds: An Air France inquiry commission … ordered its experts [to] examine the two planes for signs of sabotage… .

Published in Dawn, June 16th, 2025