Air Mauritanie was the national airline of Mauritania from 1962 until it ceased operations in 2007 due to financial difficulties. It was based at Nouakchott International Airport, from where it operated domestic services, as well as flights to African destinations and Paris. The carrier had its headquarters in Nouakchott.
History
thumb|right|Air Mauritanie Boeing 737-200
Air Mauritanie was established in as the national airline of the country. The airline served the following destinations all through its history:
{|class="wikitable sortable"
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!Country
!City
!Airport
!Notes
!class="unsortable"|Refs
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|Cape Verde||Praia||Praia International Airport||align=center|—||align=center| Following is the list of these events.
{|class="wikitable sortable"
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!Date
!Location
!Aircraft
!Tail number
!Aircraft damage
!Fatalities
!class="unsortable"|Description
!class="unsortable"|Refs
|-
|align=center|
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|align=center|
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|align=center|W/O
|align=center|
|
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|-
|align=center|
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|align=center|Fairchild F-27A
|align=center|5T-CJY
|align=center|W/O
|align=center|
|Damaged beyond repair on landing at Nouakchott International Airport.
|align=center|
|-
|align=center|
|
|align=center|Fokker F28-4000
|align=center|5T-CLF
|align=center|W/O
|align=center|/93
|The aircraft was completing a domestic Nouackchott–Tidjikja scheduled passenger service as Flight 625; the undercarriage failed on landing at Tidjikja Airport, causing the airframe to skid off the runway, crashing into a rock and bursting into flames.
|align=center|
|-
|align=center|
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|align=center|Boeing 737-700
|
|align=center|None
|align=center|
|The aircraft was hijacked by Mohamed Abderraman on a flight from Nouakchott to Las Palmas in the Spanish Canary Islands. The hijacker was allegedly seeking political asylum in France. Spain had identified him as a Mauritanian, while Mauritania said he was a Moroccan from the Western Sahara. The aircraft had 71 passengers and 8 crew on board. While explaining to Abderraman that the plane did not have enough fuel to reach France, the captain, Ahmedou Mohamed Lemine, discovered Abderraman did not speak French. When the Moroccan government denied the plane's request to land and refuel at Dakhla in the Western Sahara, the pilot decided to continue on to Las Palmas as planned. Afterwards the captain spoke to the first officer Satvinder Virk who was travelling as safety pilot in French, warning him that upon landing he was going to brake hard, to throw the hijacker off balance and give the crew a chance to overpower him. On landing, the captain did so, and the hijacker fell to the floor, dropping one of his pistols. First officer Virk and steward Thiam (entering first and immobilising the hijacker) poured boiling water from the coffee machine on him and beat him until they considered him sufficiently subdued. The hijacker was tied with life-jacket straps and handed over to the Guardia Civil. About twenty passengers were slightly injured when evacuating from the port aft escape slide.
|align=center|
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|30em
Bibliography
External links
- Air Mauritanie (Archive)