KHARTOUM - Sudanese authorities were on Wednesday investigating the causes behind the explosion of a jet carrying more than 200 people, burning at least 30 people to death on landing at Khartoum airport.
The civil aviation authority and Sudan Airways were probing the cause of the accident, Sudan Airways General Manager Abdalla Idris told reporters in Khartoum, amid contradictory reports on whether technical failure or the weather were to blame.
The Sudan Airways Airbus A310 burst into flames on landing late Tuesday, but on Wednesday six of the 214 people who were on board were still missing.
Idris said a team from Airbus would soon head to Khartoum to investigate the accident, adding that the black box had been recovered.
Thirty bodies have been taken to Khartoum's mortuary, Idris said, adding that 178 people survived the accident. The rest are missing, with some believed to have simply gone home after the accident, without reporting to authorities.
State television initially said that nearly half of the 203 passengers were killed when the plane from Amman burst into flames after one of its engines exploded on landing. The plane was carrying 11 crew.
Airport authorities said an engine caught fire, spreading to the fuselage, while survivors said weather conditions at the time of the landing were poor, with the capital hit by a sandstorm and then heavy showers.
"There was an explosion in one of the engines and the plane caught fire," airport director Yussef Ibrahim said.
He told Sudanese television that "all measures have been taken to return airport activity and flights back to normal."
"Domestic and international flights have resumed."
The plane had flown from Damascus via Amman. It was turned back once from Khartoum by bad weather and forced to land in Port Sudan, before being allowed to return to Khartoum, the official SUNA news agency said.
Television pictures showed flames tearing through the upper section of the fuselage hours after the fire broke out. An emergency escape slide could be seen attached to one of the central doors of the plane.
State Transport Minister Mabruk Mubarak Salim said "today's weather is one of the main reasons for what happened."
Civil aviation official El-Sheikh el-Faki told AFP that the plane "landed okay and then it skidded and caught fire."
Passengers said that the landing had been "very rough."
"When it came to a stop, fire was burning the right side of the plane and was beginning to burn the inside," survivor Awad Mohamed Idris, a retired Sudan Airways employee, told AFP.
Idris managed to find his relatives in the arrivals hall, but another man who gave his name as Aman said he was looking for the one-year-old child of a couple who had been hospitalised.
Ibrahim Saleh, one of the passengers at the back of the plane, said he had not seen many bodies but that there had been "many injured" on the tarmac.
He had first helped children off the plane before he himself had left. "When I got out, there were still many people on board."
It was the latest in a long line of fatal air crashes and mishaps in Sudan.
In May, 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.
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 Port Sudan after apparently suffering an engine problem soon after takeoff.
After that crash, the Khartoum government said the Sudanese air fleet was growing old as it was unable to buy spare parts for its US-made aircraft due to economic sanctions imposed by Washington.
Washington, which has placed Khartoum on a blacklist of countries supporting terrorism, says the sanctions do not prevent the delivery of spare parts for aircraft if they are requested.
The civil aviation authority and Sudan Airways were probing the cause of the accident, Sudan Airways General Manager Abdalla Idris told reporters in Khartoum, amid contradictory reports on whether technical failure or the weather were to blame.
The Sudan Airways Airbus A310 burst into flames on landing late Tuesday, but on Wednesday six of the 214 people who were on board were still missing.
Idris said a team from Airbus would soon head to Khartoum to investigate the accident, adding that the black box had been recovered.
Thirty bodies have been taken to Khartoum's mortuary, Idris said, adding that 178 people survived the accident. The rest are missing, with some believed to have simply gone home after the accident, without reporting to authorities.
State television initially said that nearly half of the 203 passengers were killed when the plane from Amman burst into flames after one of its engines exploded on landing. The plane was carrying 11 crew.
Airport authorities said an engine caught fire, spreading to the fuselage, while survivors said weather conditions at the time of the landing were poor, with the capital hit by a sandstorm and then heavy showers.
"There was an explosion in one of the engines and the plane caught fire," airport director Yussef Ibrahim said.
He told Sudanese television that "all measures have been taken to return airport activity and flights back to normal."
"Domestic and international flights have resumed."
The plane had flown from Damascus via Amman. It was turned back once from Khartoum by bad weather and forced to land in Port Sudan, before being allowed to return to Khartoum, the official SUNA news agency said.
Television pictures showed flames tearing through the upper section of the fuselage hours after the fire broke out. An emergency escape slide could be seen attached to one of the central doors of the plane.
State Transport Minister Mabruk Mubarak Salim said "today's weather is one of the main reasons for what happened."
Civil aviation official El-Sheikh el-Faki told AFP that the plane "landed okay and then it skidded and caught fire."
Passengers said that the landing had been "very rough."
"When it came to a stop, fire was burning the right side of the plane and was beginning to burn the inside," survivor Awad Mohamed Idris, a retired Sudan Airways employee, told AFP.
Idris managed to find his relatives in the arrivals hall, but another man who gave his name as Aman said he was looking for the one-year-old child of a couple who had been hospitalised.
Ibrahim Saleh, one of the passengers at the back of the plane, said he had not seen many bodies but that there had been "many injured" on the tarmac.
He had first helped children off the plane before he himself had left. "When I got out, there were still many people on board."
It was the latest in a long line of fatal air crashes and mishaps in Sudan.
In May, 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.
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 Port Sudan after apparently suffering an engine problem soon after takeoff.
After that crash, the Khartoum government said the Sudanese air fleet was growing old as it was unable to buy spare parts for its US-made aircraft due to economic sanctions imposed by Washington.
Washington, which has placed Khartoum on a blacklist of countries supporting terrorism, says the sanctions do not prevent the delivery of spare parts for aircraft if they are requested.
by Talal Osman, AFP
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