"The A310 in question had been inspected in France in 2007 by the DGAC (French civil aviation authority) and a certain number of faults had been noted," said Mr. Dominique Bussereau.

"The plane had not since then reappeared in our country," he told i-tele news.

"The company was not on the blacklist (of airlines banned from European airspace) but was being subjected to closer inspection by us and was due to soon be heard by the security committee of the European Union," he said.

The Yemenia flight started in a Paris airport Monday when an Airbus A330-200 aircraft took off for Marseille and then on to the Yemeni capital Sanaa. There passengers changed to an Airbus A310 and departed for the Comoros via Djibouti.

The twin engine plane crashed early Tuesday off the Comoros islands in the Indian Ocean.

Airbus said the crashed plane was made in 1990 and had been operated by Yemenia since 1999.

It had accumulated approximately 51 900 flight hours in some 17 300 flights, the France-based planemaker said in a statement which added that the firm was sending a team of experts to help with the crash probe.

Airbus said 214 A310s were in service with 41 operators across the globe.

Authorities say bad weather may also have played a role in the crash. Asked by reporters if weather may have been the cause of the crash, transport minister Dominique Bussereau replied that "yes, they are talking of that, but at the moment it's still a little vague."

"They are saying the plane was making its approach, that it pulled out of the approach and then tried another approach that went wrong," he told Europe 1 radio.

An official with the Yemeni national carrier Yemenia confirmed that "the plane crashed in the early hours of the morning several nautical miles off the Comoros islands, with 142 passengers and 11 crew aboard."

"Most of the passengers are French or from the Comoros," the official said, adding that rescue boats had been sent to the scene of the crash to hunt for possible survivors.

"Bodies were seen floating on the surface of the water and a fuel slick was also spotted about 16 or 17 nautical miles from Moroni," senior civil aviation official Mohammad Abdel Kader told reporters.

Search teams rush to the scene

"Rescue boats from the Comoros and Madagascar are taking part in the search operation," a Yemeni official told AFP, adding that the crash occurred about three kilometres from the coast.

Yemeni Transport Minister Khaled al-Wazir is due to give a press conference about the disaster later in the day, officials said.

Yemenia was set up in 1978 and is 51 percent owned by the Yemeni government and 49 percent by the government in neighbouring Saudi Arabia, according to its website.

It is the latest air disaster involving Airbus since an Air France jet plunged into the Atlantic almost a month ago with 228 people on board.

AFP