( CNN ) -- Searchers have recovered the bodies of three people who were aboard a Yemenia Airways jet that crashed off the coast of Comoros in the Indian Ocean , a spokesman for Yemen 's Civil Aviation department said Tuesday . A man hugs a relative of one of the victims at an airport in Marseille in southern France . Capt . Mohammed Abdel Rahman Abdel Qadir also told reporters that a child who was reported found alive was a 5-year-old boy . He did not give further details of the child 's condition . `` The French said that ( Wednesday ) they will send more French units to the accident location in order to retrieve the bodies and possibly that they may be able to locate people who are still alive , '' he said . The Airbus 310 went down early Tuesday , carrying 142 passengers and 11 crew members on a flight that originated in Yemen 's capital , Sanaa . Qadir said the jet took off from Sanaa shortly before 10 p.m. Monday and vanished from radar when it was about 16 miles from Comoros ' capital , Moroni . Searchers have not located the plane 's data recorders , Qadir said , and investigators were not speculating on the cause of the crash . `` The weather conditions were indeed very troubling and the winds were very strong , reaching 61 kilometers per hour ( 38 mph ) , '' he said . `` That 's one thing . The other thing was that the sea was very rough when the plane approached landing at Moroni airport . '' But French Transport Minister Dominique Bussereau noted that several years ago France banned the plane , a A310-300 , because of safety concerns . `` People are talking about poor weather conditions , but for the moment , we are unsure , '' Bussereau said . `` It seems the plane may have attempted an approach , put on the gas , and attempted another approach , which then failed . For the moment , we must be careful because none of this information is verified . '' Qadir said it was too early to blame the aircraft for the crash . `` This plane is just like any other plane , '' he said . `` It can have a malfunction , but we do n't know what really happened before the investigation is over . And then we can determine if there is a technical issue , bad weather or anything else that may have led to the crash . '' It was the second crash involving an Airbus jet in a month . On June 1 , an Air France Airbus A330 crashed off Brazil while en route from Rio de Janeiro to Paris , France . All 228 aboard are presumed dead . The cause remains under investigation . Recent plane crashes » . Former pilot and aviation analyst John Cox said there were no similarities between the two incidents . `` These are two dramatically different airplanes flown by two different airlines , '' Cox told CNN 's `` American Morning . '' `` The accidents happened at two different regimes of flight . And Airbus has hundreds of millions of hours flying safely . I do n't believe that ... we can draw any conclusions because the manufacturer was the same in these two very different types of accidents . '' At first , Comoros officials said there were no signs of survivors among the dead bodies floating in the choppy waters . But then rescuers found the child . Watch as airline describes child 's rescue » . Cox said it reminded him of the 1987 crash of Northwest Flight 255 in Detroit , Michigan , in which only a 4-year-old girl survived while 156 others died . `` This has come up before , and it 's where the toddler was seated ( during the impact ) that allowed them to survive , '' he said . `` It 's a miracle and I 'm glad ... the toddler is safe . I 'm just saddened for the loss of everybody else , '' he added . The Yemeni crash occurred as the plane approached the Hahaya airport in Moroni . The plane tried to land , then U-turned before it crashed , Comoros Vice President Idi Nadhoim said . Officials did not know why the plane could not land , he said . Flight 626 was expected to be a four-and-a-half-hour flight . The airline has three regular flights a week to Moroni , off the east coast of Africa , about 2,900 km ( 1,800 miles ) south of Yemen . The crash occurred about 1:30 a.m. , Nadhoim said . There was no indication of foul play behind the crash , the official in Yemen said . Yemenia Air had used the jet since 1999 on about 17,300 flights , Airbus officials said . The company said it would assist in investigating the crash . `` The concerns and sympathy of the Airbus employees go to the families , friends and loved ones affected by the accident , '' the company said in a statement . In the wake of the Air France crash on June 1 , United States accident investigators have been probing two recent failures of airspeed and altitude indications aboard Airbus A330s . One flight was between the United States and Brazil in May , and the other between Hong Kong and Japan in June . The planes landed safely and there were no injuries or damage , according to the National Transportation Safety Board . CNN 's Saad Abedine and Ayesha Durgahee contributed to this report .
NEW : Three bodies found ; French sending team to help search and rescue . A 5-year-old boy recovered alive from Yemeni jet crash in Indian Ocean . Jet was carrying more than 150 people to island of Comoros from Yemen . Crash occurs as plane tries to land at airport , official says .