Moroccan military plane crash kills 78 -military

RABAT,  (Reuters) – At least 78 people were killed yesterday when a Moroccan military transport plane crashed into a  mountain in the south of the country during bad weather, the  military said in a statement carried by the state news agency.

The military said there were three injured survivors so far  from the crash, which happened when a Hercules C-130 aircraft  was trying to land in Guelmim, having flown north from the  disputed Western Sahara territory.

The crash is Morocco’s worst known air disaster since 1973,  when 105 people were killed after a Royal Air Maroc aircraft  crashed near the capital Rabat.

A resident in the Guelmim area told Reuters there was thick  fog in at the time of the crash, which occurred at 9 a.m.(0800  GMT) some 730 km (450 miles) south of Rabat.