A C-130 military transport plane crashed into a Moroccan mountain yesterday in bad weather, killing 80 people, the state news agency said.
The army said 78 people were killed on the spot and two rushed to hospital after the Hercules C-130 crashed on the edge of the Sahara desert in Morocco's worst military aviation disaster.
A hospital source later told AFP that the injured died of their wounds. The bodies of several victims have been recovered from the mountainside and taken to the military hospital at Guelmin, the army said in a statement.
Information Minister Khalid Naciri said searches are on to find all the bodies.
Authorities earlier reported that 81 people were aboard the plane but it emerged later that one passenger did not board in Laayoune in the Western Sahara and was mistakenly included in the total.
New agency MAP said the plane crashed around 9am local time (0800 GMT) as it prepared to land at the Guelmim military air base.
The army said the crash was "due to bad weather conditions".
"Above all, it was the fog and bad weather conditions that are believed to be behind this accident. But for the moment, we don't have enough information," an interior ministry official said.
Naciri said the plane was en route from Dakhla, in the Western Sahara, to Kinitra in northern Morocco, and making a stop in Guelmim, which is more than 600 kilometres southwest of the capital Rabat, just north of the Western Sahara.
The army said 78 people were killed on the spot and two rushed to hospital after the Hercules C-130 crashed on the edge of the Sahara desert in Morocco's worst military aviation disaster.
A hospital source later told AFP that the injured died of their wounds. The bodies of several victims have been recovered from the mountainside and taken to the military hospital at Guelmin, the army said in a statement.
Information Minister Khalid Naciri said searches are on to find all the bodies.
Authorities earlier reported that 81 people were aboard the plane but it emerged later that one passenger did not board in Laayoune in the Western Sahara and was mistakenly included in the total.
The army said the crash was "due to bad weather conditions".
"Above all, it was the fog and bad weather conditions that are believed to be behind this accident. But for the moment, we don't have enough information," an interior ministry official said.
Naciri said the plane was en route from Dakhla, in the Western Sahara, to Kinitra in northern Morocco, and making a stop in Guelmim, which is more than 600 kilometres southwest of the capital Rabat, just north of the Western Sahara.
