TRIPOLI - A Libyan plane arriving from South Africa disintegrated on landing at Tripoli airport yesterday, killing 103 people but leaving an eight-year-old boy as the sole survivor.

Witnesses spoke of the Afriqiyah Airways plane inexplicably breaking up "one metre away from the runway" as it came to land in clear weather.

Small and large pieces of plane debris were scattered across a large field. The plane was carrying 93 passengers and 11 crew.

The only survivor, who is believed to be Dutch, underwent surgery at a Tripoli hospital for broken bones. Libyan TV showed video of the boy lying in a hospital bed, his head bandaged. He had intravenous lines into one arm and appeared to be conscious.

Sixty-one of those killed were from the Netherlands - more than half of those on board. A South African aviation official said most of the passengers on the plane were making connections to Europe including London, Brussels, Dusseldorf and Paris.

Libyan Transport Minister Mohammed Ali Zidan said no terrorism was involved.

"We have definitely ruled out the theory that the crash was the result of an act of terrorism," he said, adding that the two black boxes of the aircraft had been recovered.

The plane was new and had only been acquired by the airline in September.