Plane bursts into flames in Sudan; 100 feared dead

[Icadon]

Sudanese TV says at least 100 people were killed in plane crash at Khartoum airport. A plane carrying about 200 passengers veered off a runway late Tuesday amid thunderstorms and burst into flames.

An Associated Press reporter at the scene said the plane arriving from Amman, Jordan apparently left the runway as it landed in Khartoum, the capital of Sudan.

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.

The plane took off from Damascus, Syria, Najib said. Al-Jazeera television station said it was a Sudanese Airways passenger jet, and Najib confirmed the plane was from a Sudanese airline.

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.

 

[Pundit]

Pole zao!

Nostradamus alisema nini kuhusu midege kuanguka Africa wiki hii?

Au ndiyo mambo ya weather?

 

[Kuhani]

Pole zao!

Nostradamus alisema nini kuhusu midege kuanguka Africa wiki hii?

Au ndiyo mambo ya weather?

Hamna cha Nonstradamus na superstitions wala weather! Anga za Africa ni hatari kuliko popote duniani. Ndege nzee za Kirusi, Usalama wa Abiria sio ishu, na hakuna maintenance.


Are Africa's skies safe enough?
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/talking_point/3020383.stm

Africa's skies are full of rickety old planes, many from the former Soviet Union and originally designed for cargo. Maintenance is often shambolic, and passenger safety is not a priority.

________________________

Africa's unsafe skies
http://travel.iafrica.com/flights/906695.htm

Thu, 08 May 2008 17:29

It is still six times less safe to fly in Africa than the rest of the world, the annual safety report released by the International Air Transport Association (IATA) on Thursday showed.

The report illustrated that the 2007 global accident rate of 0.75 hull-losses for every million flights by Western-built jet aircraft was slightly higher than the 0.65 rate recorded in 2006.

Africa had the worst record at 4.09 hull-losses per million flights.