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Jordanian Officials Deny Crown Prince On Board Before Plane Crash
Jordanian officials on Tuesday denied as baseless reports that Crown Prince Hamza Bin Hussein was on board a Jordanian C-130 transport plane before it crashed in eastern Amman earlier in the day, killing 14 military officers.
In an urgent brief dispatch, Jordan's official news agency Petra quoted unnamed senior officials as saying that the reports were groundless, and Prince Hamza was the first to arrive at the scene after the crash, some 70 kilometers east of the capital city Amman. Hamza is a half-brother of King Abdullah Bin Hussein, and his safety remains a sensitive topic in the kingdom, where there is a tradition of primogeniture succession to the throne though the constitution says a brother of the king could also become an heir.
Earlier reports said Hamza was among the 60 parachuters from the elite airborne forces of the kingdom, who had landed safely with parachutes before the plane developed a technical failure and crashed.
The C-130 was conducting a routine training mission before the accident.
However, 14 military officers, including the crew members died instantly when the plane crashed in the worst air disaster in the kingdom in recent years.
A F-15 fighter plane crashed in 1999, killing one pilot, but his co-pilot was ejected out of the cabin and landed safely with a parachute.
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