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Russian cargo jet crashes in Sudan, killing entire crew

A cargo plane crashed in Sudan yesterday shortly after taking off from Khartoum airport, killing four Russian crew members, a spokesman for the Civil Aviation Authority said.

It is the fourth plane crash in Sudan in two months.

“A cargo plane which is a Russian plane from the Ababeel cargo company crashed. On board were four crew members who are dead and two corpses have been recovered so far,” spokesman Abdel Hafez Abdel Rahim said.

“The four crew members were Russian, no one survived the crash,” Abdel Rahim said.

He said the plane crashed at around 7am, but added: “It’s too early to say what happened and what was the cause.”

“The whole plane blew up in a fireball as it lifted off,” one witness waiting at the airport said.

He said the left wing appeared to drop as the plane took off and that it crashed in wasteland on the edge of Khartoum airport.

Firetrucks rushed to the scene to put out the smoking wreckage, the witness said.

“Thank God it fell in an empty area. The buildings around the airport were not damaged,” said Mohammed Najib al Tayeb, head of Khartoum’s police.

“It is clear that the plane hit that electricity pole,” said Yussuf Ibrahim, head of Khartoum airport, pointing to poles not far from the crater caused by the crash.

The plane, which was headed to the southern Sudanese capital of Juba, is the second cargo plane to crash in Sudan in just a few days.

On Friday, a cargo plane crashed mid-flight after taking off from Khartoum, killing seven crew members, including one Armenian and four Ukranians.

Sudan has a poor aviation record and the crash was the fourth fatal aviation accident in Africa’s biggest country since last month.

Earlier this month, a Sudan Airways Airbus carrying 214 people burst into flames after landing at Khartoum international airport, killing at least 30 people.

Airport authorities said an engine caught fire, spreading to the fuselage, while survivors said the weather at the time of the landing was poor, owing to a sandstorm followed by heavy showers.


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