Sudan plane crash toll put at 28
Who's at fault?: Rescue teams work at the scene of a Sudan Airways accident at Khartoum airport yesterday. Sudanese authorities were searching for passengers who escaped from the jet after it exploded on landing at the Sudanese capital. Picture: AFP
Thursday, June 12, 2008
THE head of medical services at Khartoum airport said yesterday the death toll of 120 he gave earlier from a Sudan Airways plane fire was incorrect and that the figure was now at least 28 dead.
Major-General Mohamed Osman Mahjoub said the authorities had so far counted 123 survivors from the 217 people on board the plane and that 28 bodies were in the local mortuary. That would leave 66 people unaccounted for.
"The figure of 120 was incorrect. It was not confirmed," Mahjoub said.
Some of the 66 people unaccounted for might have survived and left the airport area during the confusion caused when the plane burst into flames after landing on last Tuesday, he said. The authorities were asking them to make contact to help produce an accurate count of who died and who survived. Sudanese television showed film of the aircraft ablaze in the darkness while emergency workers aimed water hoses on the burning fuselage.
One passenger said the plane had tried to land at Khartoum airport "but then the captain told us we couldn't land because of bad weather".
He said they then flew to the Red Sea city of Port Sudan before returning to Khartoum an hour later. "When (the pilot) tried to land there was a crash," the passenger told Sudan Television. During landing a dust storm in the Sudanese capital was restricting visibility, residents said.Reuters
Major-General Mohamed Osman Mahjoub said the authorities had so far counted 123 survivors from the 217 people on board the plane and that 28 bodies were in the local mortuary. That would leave 66 people unaccounted for.
"The figure of 120 was incorrect. It was not confirmed," Mahjoub said.
Some of the 66 people unaccounted for might have survived and left the airport area during the confusion caused when the plane burst into flames after landing on last Tuesday, he said. The authorities were asking them to make contact to help produce an accurate count of who died and who survived. Sudanese television showed film of the aircraft ablaze in the darkness while emergency workers aimed water hoses on the burning fuselage.
One passenger said the plane had tried to land at Khartoum airport "but then the captain told us we couldn't land because of bad weather".
He said they then flew to the Red Sea city of Port Sudan before returning to Khartoum an hour later. "When (the pilot) tried to land there was a crash," the passenger told Sudan Television. During landing a dust storm in the Sudanese capital was restricting visibility, residents said.Reuters
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