"The company was not on the black list but was subject to stricter checks on our part, and was due to be interviewed shortly by the European Union's safety committee," said Bussereau.

But Yemeni Transport Minister Khaled al-Wazir rebutted the reports that the crash of the Airbus A310-300 was due to technical problems.

The plane was "technically sound," and underwent a thorough inspection in May under Airbus supervision, said al-Wazir.

"It was a comprehensive inspection carried out in Yemen...with experts from Airbus," the minister said. "It was in line with international standards."

Al-Wazir said the French authorities did put forward some suggestions for the plane two years ago, but the advices concerned mostly the level of passenger comfort including some improvements of plane seats, television screen and earphones.

Yemeni civil aviation deputy chief Mohammed Abdul Qader said the flight data recorder has not been found yet and it was too early to speculate on the cause of the crash. But he said the wind was 61 kph as the plane was landing in the middle of the night.

"The weather was very bad," he said, adding the windy conditions hampered rescue efforts. Rescue teams on Tuesday found a child survivor and retrieved the bodies of some of the victims, official Yemeni news agency SABA reported on Tuesday. Two French military planes and a French ship were searching for the wreck of the plane.