Sudan plane crash kills 115, boy sole survivor

KHARTOUM: A two-year-old boy was the sole survivor after a Sudan Airways plane crashed on a domestic flight in Africa’s largest country yesterday, killing 115 people.

Mohammed al-Fatih lost a leg in the crash and his mother was among those killed, a spokesman for the airline said. The toddler was flown to the capital, Khartoum, for treatment. The pilot of the Boeing 737 reported a technical failure a few minutes after taking off at about 4 am local time from the Red Sea town of Port Sudan in the northeast, heading towards the capital, state radio said. The plane crashed a few kilometres away from Port Sudan airport as it returned in an attempt to land. The bodies of the dead were swiftly buried, in keeping with Muslim tradition, although officials said they were still struggling to identify all the victims.

Ihab al-Amin, a correspondent of al-Khartoum daily who visited the scene, said some bodies were thrown some distance from the crash site and many were badly burnt. It was not clear how identification would proceed after the burials. Residents of Port Sudan, fearing for their loved ones, rushed to the airport waiting for news or to console victims’ families. In Khartoum, people made frantic checks to see if family or friends were on board. A Sudan Airways employee told Reuters 104 passengers and 11 crew were killed, most of them Sudanese. A passenger list said 17 children were on the flight. Sudan Airways external relations manager Jalal al-Ajab said an airline list showed eight foreigners were on board — three Indians, a Briton, a Chinese, an Ethiopian and a United Arab Emirates’ citizen. One person’s nationality was not known.