Fri | May 15, 2026

78 killed, 3 survive

Published:Wednesday | July 27, 2011 | 12:00 AM
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In this Friday, July 8, file photo, officials look at a single-engine plane crash at a hospital in Watsonville, California, after it crashed on Thursday night. On Friday, July 22, Federal investigators announced that the plane that crashed into a Central California medical building, killing four people on-board, took off at a steep angle, rolled until it was nearly upside down and then nose-dived. - AP PHOTOS
In this photo taken July 24, emergency workers respond to the scene of a small plane crash that killed three people in Rantoul, Ill. A Federal Aviation Administration official says the single-engine airplane went down shortly after take-off from the Rantoul Airport about 125 miles southwest of Chicago.
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RABAT (AP):

A C-130 military transport plane crashed into a Moroccan mountain yesterday in bad weather, killing 78 people, the state news agency said. It said there were three survivors.

The crash in a southern region close to the disputed Western Sahara was this country's deadliest in years.

Information Minister Khaled Naciri told The Associated Press that the military believes 78 were killed, but that searches are ongoing for all the bodies.

The MAP news agency said all three survivors were seriously injured. It said the plane was carrying 60 members of the military, 12 civilians and nine crew members.

Citing a Royal Armed Forces statement, the report said that the remains of only 42 people have been found so far. It was not immediately clear how the military determined that 78 were killed.

MAP said the plane crashed around 9 a.m. local time (0800 GMT) 10 kilometres (six miles) northeast of Guelmim in southern Morocco, as it prepared to land at the Guelmim military air base.

MAP said the crash was "due to bad weather conditions," without elaborating.

Naciri said the plane was en route from Dakhla, in the disputed Western Sahara, to Kinitra in northern Morocco, and making a stop in Guelmim.