PARIS: Angry Comorans delayed a Paris flight to Sanaa and shut down travel agents in Marseille on Wednesday in fury at the crash of an airliner that left 152 feared dead, saying the tragedy could have been avoided. France’s large Comoran community was plunged into mourning by the Yemenia A310 crash off the Indian Ocean archipelago, with a 13-year-old girl plucked from the ocean so far the only survivor. But grief turned to anger as questions mounted over the carrier’s safety record, and why the 19-year-old jet – banned from French airspace because of “irregularities” – was allowed to carry passengers who originated in Paris onwards from Sanaa. The doomed Yemenia flight left Paris, made a stopover in Marseille and headed to Sanaa, where its passengers were switched to the older A310 jet to continue to Djibouti and Moroni. Comorans in France say they warned French authorities repeatedly that flights to their home islands were not safe, setting up a protest group, “SOS Voyage aux Comores,” last year to demand action. “We warned the Comoran and French authorities it was a disaster waiting to happen, but no one listened to us,” Soilhi Mze, a Comoran community leader in the Paris suburb of La Courneuve, told AFP on Tuesday. In the Mediterranean port of Marseille, home to the world’s largest Comoran community of 80,000 people, around 100 protesters forced two travel agents selling Yemenia tickets to shut down on Wednesday. “We are going to close down all agencies that sell Yemenia tickets until the investigation is carried out,” said Mohamed Moussa, a local radio presenter. One protester, Arafa Mbae, accused French authorities, health officials and Yemenia of failing the families of the victims, who include 66 French nationals and many French-Comorans. “We want Yemenia to put us in decent planes to transport people straight to the Comoros for the mourning period,” said the 37-year-old. “There is zero support for the families, nothing is being done.” Early today, angry Comoran youths blocked passengers from boarding a Yemenia flight to Sanaa at Paris Charles de Gaulle airport. Bacar Soilihi, a French-Comoran aide to a local deputy, said they were protesting at “the deplorable conditions in which they make us travel once we are outside European airspace.” The plane left 40 minutes late with 60 of its planned 160 passengers, and skipped its planned halt in Marseille altogether, airport officials said. The Yemenia A310 had aborted a landing and was making a second attempt when it crashed, officials said. French authorities said the jet had been banned from France’s airspace because of doubts about its safety. Transport Minister Dominique Bussereau said French inspectors had in 2007 found numerous faults on the plane and that the airline, founded in 1961, was being closely monitored by EU authorities. Yemen’s Transport Minister Khaled al-Wazir told AFP the plane was technically sound and regularly flew to Europe.