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100 killed in Sudan plane crash
10/06/2008 22:17 - (SA)
Khartoum - A Sudanese jetliner veered off a runway late Tuesday amid thunderstorms and exploded into flames, killing about 100 people, Sudan's state television reported.
Over 200 passengers were said to be aboard the plane when it landed in bad weather and a higher casualty toll was feared.
An Associated Press reporter at the scene said the plane was arriving from Amman, Jordan, and apparently left the runway as it landed in Khartoum, the capital of Sudan.
Ambulances and firetrucks rushed to the scene at the Khartoum International Airport, but media were kept from getting closer to the blaze.
Raqeeb Abdel-Latif, head of the Sudan Airways office in Damascus, Syria, said the plane was a Sudan Airbus-310 that joined the Sudanese national carrier fleet seven months ago.
It took off from Damascus with 203 passengers on board, mostly Africans and a few non-Sudanese nationals and 14 crew members. It stopped in Amman, where 34 additional passengers came on board.
Bad weather
The head of Sudanese police, Mohammad Najib, said bad weather "caused the plane to crash land, split into two and catch fire".
"We believe that most of the passengers were able to make it out and escape with their lives," said Najib, without disclosing further details on how they escaped.
But he stressed that officials could not say for sure how many were killed.
Youssef Ibrahim, director of the Khartoum airport, told Sudanese TV that the plane had "landed safely" in Khartoum and that the pilot even talked to the control tower and got directions for his landing path.
"At this moment, one of the (plane's) engines exploded and the plane caught fire," Ibrahim said. "It's a technical reason," he added, denying reports that bad weather caused the crash.
He said there were survivors, but gave no figures.
Spokespersons for the Federal Aviation Administration and the National Transportation Safety Board in Washington could not immediately provide any details of the incident, but said they were continuing to monitor the situation.
Sudan has a poor aviation safety record. In May, a plane crash in a remote area of southern Sudan killed 24 people, including key members of the southern Sudanese government.
In July 2003, a Sudan Airways Boeing 737 en route from Port Sudan to Khartoum crashed soon after takeoff, killing all 115 people on board.
- AP
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