The Airbus A330-200, only in service since September, was flying from Johannesburg to the Libyan capital when it crashed just short of the runway around 6 am (0400 GMT), according to the airline and planemaker.

The plane was carrying 93 passengers and 11 crew, according to Libyan officials and executives from the airline said. Saleh Ali Saleh, an executive with Libya's Afriqiyah Airways told Reuters that the victims included 62 Dutch nationals.

"Everybody is dead, except for one child," said Libyan Transport Minister Mohamed Zidan, who added the child was 10 years old. Dutch Foreign Minister Maxime Verhagen told reporters in The Hague that the boy had said "Holland, Holland" to Libyan medical staff.

A manifest of those aboard was not released but officials in Libya and in the passengers' countries of origin said that besides the Dutch, there were small numbers of nationals from Britain, Germany, the Philippines, South Africa and Zimbabwe. The transport minister told a news conference 13 Libyan passengers and crew had been on the aircraft. He said there were also citizens of France and Finland on board, though he did not say how many.

The minister said investigators were working out what went wrong with Afriqiyah Airways Flight 8U771. He ruled out terrorism as the cause.

Reuters