View Single Post
  #1  
Old 11th June 2008, 08:18 AM
Montague S's Avatar
Montague S Montague S is offline
Member
 
Join Date: Mar 2008
Location: Melbourne
Posts: 957
Default 100 feared dead in Khartoum plane fireball

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2...11/2270726.htm

interesting that the plane appears to have landed safely then exploded.


Quote:
A Sudan Airways airliner has caught fire after landing at Khartoum airport in poor weather, killing more than 100 people, Sudanese national television said.

"Preliminary reports indicate that about half the 203 passengers on board are dead," a television presenter said.

There were 14 crew members on board but their fate was not immediately known.

The Airbus had just arrived from Jordanian capital Amman via Damascus when the accident occurred, the television said, adding that weather conditions were poor and that the capital had been hit first by a sandstorm and then by heavy showers.

"There was an explosion in one of the engines and the plane caught fire," airport director Yussef Ibrahim said in an interview.

"We cannot give exact figures," regarding victims, but "a large number of passengers are safe and well," he added, indicating that fewer people may have been killed than the television had reported.

Police official Mohammed Naguib al-Tayyeb had earlier told the broadcaster that most passengers had managed to escape the aircraft without injury but some had suffered burn wounds.

Police officials interviewed by the channel said the plane veered off the runway as it landed for reasons still to be determined.

Emergency services had rushed to the aircraft in "numbers" and were fighting the blaze.

Airport director Yusuf Ibrahim told Sudanese television the cause of the fire was not yet clear.

"Whether it is a technical reason, we don't know yet," he said.

"The plane was coming from Amman and Syria... it landed safely at Khartoum airport and they talked to the control tower which told them where to taxi. At this moment an explosion happened."

Families of passengers were waiting at the airport "in fear", the television said.

"Hospitals in Khartoum have received a great number of injured," the presenter said, adding that the casualties were in a stable condition.

Television pictures showed flames tearing through the upper section of the fuselage hours after the fire broke out and an emergency escape slide could be seen attached to one of the central doors of the plane.

Abbas al-Fadini, a member of the Sudanese parliament who was on the plane, told CNN television that the fire started from the right engine and then spread to the inside of the plane.

He said he was in the front of the plane and was among those who exited first.

Crew members were guiding people to the exit and some passengers injured were sent to local hospitals, he added.

In May this year, south Sudan's defence minister was killed in a plane crash along with at least 22 other people, most of them senior members of the southern former rebel leadership.

Lieutenant General Dominic Dim Deng's plane came down 375 kilometres from the southern capital Juba, killing everyone on board, including many army officers.

In July 2003, 115 people were killed when a Sudan Airways Boeing 737 was destroyed in a ball of fire as it attempted to land at the Red Sea coast resort of Port Sudan after apparently suffering an engine problem soon after take-off.
__________________
photos updated 29 Sept

Next Flights:
MEL-HKG-HND-HKG-JFK-HKG-NRT-HKG-MEL/CX
Reply With Quote