Kish Airlines aircraft down near Sharjah

[newswatcher]

BBC (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/3475081.stm) reports Kish airliner down out of Sharjah, up to 60 on board.

...and from UAE Khaleej Times (http://www.khaleejtimes.com/DisplayArticle.asp?xfile=data/theuae/2004/February/theuae_February170.xml&section=theuae)

[cordy]

Sorry to see this happen, may God bless all of them and take them straight to heaven.

[EuroATC]

Hi all, was working this am in Bahrain and we got news that airport in OMSJ was closed til 1000 Z. Not much info at first, then had a break and it was already on BBC news.

My heart goes out to all the families involved and to any controller that was working that flight. It must be hard to see that happen... especially if it happened close to the airport where the tower would have seen it.

[Bang]

As of now,14.10GMT, 43 pax said to be confirmed dead.

[Setarime]

Dubai scraps visa flights
11-02-04

Dubai Crown Prince General Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum has ordered the immediate elimination of visa-run flights in the wake of yesterday's Kish Air crash in Sharjah. The new arrangement will cover all professions and nationalities in the interest of public safety.

[Dash8100]

DUBAI, March 2 (AFP) - An Iranian Kish Airlines plane crashed,
killing 43 people, after the engines went into reverse and the pilot
lost control coming into land, the civil aviation authority said
here Tuesday.
€ "The engines went into reverse which would have made it
impossible to control" the Fokker 50 twin-turboprop aircraft as it
approached the international airport in the neighbouring emirate of
Sharjah on February 10, said a statement carried by the official WAM
news agency.
€ It did not say if the pilot put the engines into reverse or not,
promising "more details at the end of the inquiry."
€ The flight had come from Iran's Gulf island of Kish when it went
down in an open area between the villas of a crowded residential
zone about two miles (nearly four kilometres) from the airport, on
the border between Sharjah and Ajman, another emirate in the
seven-member UAE federation.
€ Only three of the 46 people on board survived the crash.
€ tm/bp/mb
€AFP 021307 GMT MAR 04