Sudanese plane bursts into flames, killing dozens
KHARTOUM, Sudan - A Sudanese Airbus carrying 214 people veered off the runway in a thunderstorm and burst into flames late Tuesday, killing dozens unable to escape the inferno. Officials said more than 100 people fled the plane before it was engulfed by towering orange flames.
An Associated Press reporter at the scene said the Sudan Airways jetliner appeared to have left the runway after landing at Khartoum International Airport, and several loud explosions resounded as fire raced through the aircraft.
The roaring blaze dwarfed the Airbus A310's shattered fuselage as firefighters sprayed water with little apparent effect, Sudanese TV footage showed. Ambulances and firetrucks rushed to the scene, and media were kept away.
The Civil Aviation Authority confirmed that 103 passengers and all 11 crew members survived. In addition, it said some other passengers may have gone home directly after the crew helped them through the emergency doors. Officials said most aboard were Sudanese.
Death toll reports conflicted. State TV initially said about 100 were killed, but officials later put the toll at dozens without being more precise. Deputy parliament speaker Mohammed al-Hassan al-Ameen said "about 30 people" died, while police spokesman Mohammed Abdel Majid al-Tayeb said 23 bodies were brought to the morgue.
"There are missing passengers who could be still inside the plane, or left the aircraft but did not inform officials," al-Tayeb said.
A survivor speaking at the airport to Sudanese TV said the landing was "rough," and there was a sharp impact several minutes later.
"The right wing was on fire," said the passenger, who did not give his name. He said smoke got into the cockpit and some people started opening the emergency exits. Soon, fire engulfed the plane, he said.
The cause of the accident wasn't immediately known and there were differing reports on the role weather played.
A sandstorm had hit the area with 20 mph winds between 2 p.m. and 3 p.m. and there was a thunderstorm and similar winds at the time of the crash around 9 p.m., said Elaine Yang, a meterologist with the San Francisco-based Weather Underground, a private weather service.
The Sudanese ambassador to Washington called the weather "very bad" and said the runway had been drenched by rain.
"There was a lot of water on the runway and they still tried to land," Ambassador John Ukec Lueth Ukec said.
The head of Sudanese police, Mohammad Najib, said bad weather "caused the plane to crash land, split into two and catch fire."
Youssef Ibrahim, director of the Khartoum airport, disputed that bad weather caused the crash. He told Sudanese TV that the plane "landed safely" and the pilot was talking to the control tower and getting further instructions when the accident occurred.
"One of the (plane's) engines exploded and the plane caught fire," Ibrahim said. He blamed the accident on technical problems, but didn't elaborate.
Raqeeb Abdel-Latif, head of the Sudan Airways office in Damascus, Syria, said the plane, which joined the Sudanese national carrier seven months ago, took off from Damascus and stopped in Amman, Jordan, where 34 additional passengers came on board.
Due to inclement weather, the aircraft stopped at Port Sudan Airport along the Red Sea, picking up 35 passengers and refueling before heading back to Khartoum, the Sudanese ambassador said in Washington.
Spokesmen for the Federal Aviation Administration and the National Transportation Safety Board in Washington said they were monitoring the situation. The Khartoum airport was shut down until Wednesday morning, officials said.
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.
After that crash, Sudanese officials blamed sanctions for restricting vital aircraft parts. The U.S. State Department said there was no ban on equipment needed for aviation safety.
In 1997, then-President Clinton issued an executive order barring the export of goods and technology to Sudan because of the country's "support for international terrorism, ongoing efforts to destabilize neighboring governments, and the prevalence of human rights violations."
The U.N. Security Council has imposed an embargo on providing arms or military training to armed groups in Sudan's Darfur region and a travel ban and asset freeze on some people implicated in the violence there.
The Airbus A310 is a twin-engine, widebody plane used by a number of carriers around the world. Typically configured with about 220 seats, it is a shorter version of the popular A300.
An Airbus spokesman in Paris declined immediate comment on the crash.
In July 2006, an A310 operated by Russia's S7 Airlines went off the runway after landing in Irkutsk, smashed into adjacent buildings and caught fire, killing 123 of the 203 people aboard.
Although deaths from air travel have fallen over the past two years, the number of serious jetliner accidents increased last year for the first time in a decade, according to a report last month by the International Air Transport Association. Nearly half of all jet accidents occurred on landing in 2007.
苏丹飞机突然起火，12人死亡
周二一架搭载214名乘客的苏丹空客由于暴风雨而突然偏离跑道后起火。12人未能脱离厄运。官方说超过100名乘客在大火吞没飞机前就逃离了飞机。
一位美联社记者在现场说，苏丹航空公司的喷气客机就停在喀土穆国际机场跑道的左边，在几声巨大的爆炸声中飞机被或吞没了。
伴随这隆隆大火空客A310机身已经破碎，消防队员喷洒水的灭火效果不明显。苏丹电视台的画面显示，救护车和消防车赶到现场，媒体被阻挡在外面。
苏丹民航局确认103名乘客和11名乘务员幸免遇难。另外一些乘客在机组人员的帮助下通过安全门后可以直接回家
死亡人数报告。苏丹国家电视台一开始说大约100人遇难，但是官方稍后更改了人数为12人并没有再增加。副议长穆罕默德说约三十人死亡，而警方发言人穆罕默德阿卜杜勒说， 23具尸体被带到停尸间。
al-Tayeb说失踪的乘客可能还在飞机里，或这些数字没有通知政府
一位幸存者对苏丹电视台说飞机降落的时候不太平稳，随后发生了剧烈的碰撞。随后火警响了起来。烟进入了机仓，一些人开始打开紧急出口很快大火就吞没了飞机。
飞机失事的原因还没法一下子就得知，天气原因是争论的焦点。
总部在旧金山的一个专门私人气象组织Elaine Yang说，下午2-3点时速20英里的沙暴袭击了这片区域。在晚上九点暴风雨又袭击了该片区域。
苏丹驻华盛顿大使电话说天气太坏了，跑道上因为下雨很湿滑。
驻联合国大使约翰Ukec Lueth Ukec 说：跑道上太多的水使得他们降落很困难。
苏丹警察局主管ohammad Najib说，坏天气是造成飞机坠毁解体并着火的原因。
喀土穆机场主任Youssef Ibrahim说，有争议的恶劣天气造成飞机坠毁。他告诉苏丹电视台那家飞机在报告了着陆安全后在等待进一步指示时发生了意外，飞机的一个引擎着火了。Ibrahim说事故属于技术问题，但是他没有透露更多。
苏丹航空公司叙利亚大马士革办事处处长阿卜杜勒拉蒂夫说这架飞机刚刚使用了七个月，从大马士革起飞中途停靠约旦阿曼并有34名乘客上飞机。
苏丹大使在华盛顿说：由于恶劣的天气，飞机在沿红海的苏丹港停靠，接载35名乘客并加油后回到喀土穆。
联邦航空管理局和美国国家运输安全委员会发言人在华盛顿说，喀土穆机场将被关闭做一些检测，直到周三上午才会开通。
苏丹的航空安全记录不是很好，在五月一架飞机坠毁在苏丹南部24人遇难，包括一名南方政府官员。在2003年7月一架苏丹南方航空公司的波音737飞机从苏丹港到喀土穆起飞后坠毁，飞机上115人遇难。
在那次事故后，苏丹官员称由于制裁限制了重要飞机零部件的进口。美国国务院说没有禁止航空安全设备的运输。
在1997年，克林顿总统发布了总统令，对苏丹禁止出口货物和技术。因为该国家支持国际恐怖组织，努力破坏邻国的政府，以及普遍存在的侵犯**行为” 。
联合国安理会已利用武器禁运或军事训练团体在苏丹的达尔富尔地区实施旅游禁令和冻结那些与暴力事件有牵连的人的资产。
空客A310有2个引擎，在世界各地使用最广泛的搭乘工具。标准配置220个座位，比A300稍微短一点点。
2006年7月，一架俄罗斯S7航空公司的A310飞机在伊尔库斯科着陆后爆炸解体，坠机附近的建筑物也着了火，飞机上203人有123人遇难。
尽管飞机失事死亡人数超过过去两年，一些客机的严重意外增加，据上个月国际航空运输协会报道截止到去年的十年内有一半的航空意外在2007年
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