Sudanese 737 down

[Cyclic Hotline]

Sudanese Plane Crashes Killing 116
10 minutes ago

KHARTOUM, Sudan - A Sudanese airliner crashed early Tuesday shortly after taking off from Port Sudan airport, killing 105 passenger and 11 crew. Only a child survived, Sudan News Agency reported.

The Boeing 737 was on an internal flight to the capital, Khartoum, when its captain reported trouble, "but fate was quicker," the director of Sudan Airways, Ahmed Ismail Zuwary, told the news agency.

The plane crashed in an empty area near the Port Sudan airport on the Red Sea, it said.

Sudanese officials said an investigators would be sent to the scene of the crash.

Government spokesman Salah Ali Ahmed told Sudanese national television that the child was in a hospital and in good condition.

He said the plane crashed some three miles from Port Sudan airport.

It is not yet known if there were foreigners on board.

[Load Toad]

'It is not yet known if there were foreigners on board'.


Oh well if its only darkies in the plane it doesn't matter does it.
:ooh:

[khasabman]

Lord Toad, what a ridiculous and irrelevant comment.

[HotDog]

There is absolutely no hint of racism in that report Load Toad. Get that chip off your shoulder!

[pzu]

Re Sudan Airways down at PZU;

Yes its my 'work locale' !!!

Believe there were 'foreign nationals' on board;

A/c had done Khartoum - Port Sudan, then Port Sudan to Dongola and return, and then commenced flight to Khartoum;

Will update when I have more, but at present in Khartoum;

Load Toad - I was in the office when one of our local secretaries learnt her father was on the flight!!!

PZU

[TDK mk2]

Mig15: Lord Toads comment was irony NOT racism.

Khasabman: What Lord Toad said wasn't rediculous or irrelevant. You can bet the news services will be looking at whether there were westerners on board when they decide whether to broadcast...

[Alt.cap]

HD, Mig and K'man. I think you may have misinterpreted Mr. Toad's comment. I look forward to your thoughts as to the relevance of the last line in the initial thread. On thinking though and out of respect to the victims keep them to yourself lest this unfortunate thread turns away from it's purpose.

[Load Toad]

My comment was not in any way meant to be racist rather I was making an ironic comment at the media's comment about waiting for news of foreigners being on board.
There is a habit in western media to have interest in events which effect westerners and more so say for a British news paper to be interested in an event that effects British citizens (The local interest angle).
However in an initial report of a saddening aircrash I find the 'are foreigners involved?' to be rather pathetic; surely the fact that humans are involved is sad enough without finding out if someone from Chermsley St Alice was on the 'plane?

If you think I'm being racist thats your perogative.

[LGW Vulture]

It is in fact rather ironic Toad that you chose not to address the disaster but the angle YOU were most interested in!

A misguided comment which at times, we are all a little guilty of!

Any further ACTUAL news eg. possible causes? Back to the important bits eh!

[Load Toad]

Since I do not mean to cause offence I humbly apologize and withdraw the comment.

[Chocks Away]

Very sad, all but one on board, dead... though amazing... the one survivor being a baby.:\

Heaven knows what such an innocent, little, supple human body can withstand.

[Parapunter]

I am reminded of the old joke about the Daily Mail:

Earthquake detected in Siberia: No English hurt.

I get what L.T. was on about. How about some news of the poor souls onboard?

[Stability Jane]

Load Toad, the point you were trying to make was a very valid one. Unfortunately, it was taken the wrong way because you did not elaborate on it.

It is always very sad when there is any loss of life. My condolence to all the families, and friends.

[Homer Simpson]

ATTENTION PPRUNE ADMINISTRATORS

In light of Mig15s comment, please ban him. Such lack of irony and out right stupidity are not acceptable.

:rolleyes:

[Load Toad]

OK, my post was insensative though the point I was trying to make was that we are all 'foreigners' to those not of our own nationality.
In a tragic accident such as this couldn't the report as easily say something like
'..passenger list as yet unavailable, nationalities of casualties unkown, the emergency contact details are...'

I have reasons to get sensative myself about the term 'foreigner' but I won't go into them here.

Cheers for the right to reply & clarify my position.

[wandrinabout]

Cant you all stop your pathetic bitching, who gives a sh!t who said what and to who - an aircraft has gone in with significant loss of life, think about it.

Thoughts and condolences to friends and families. Special thoughts to the families of the crew who will not only have to deal with their loss, but also the subsequent investigation they will endure.

[Few Cloudy]

Any news as to what Trouble the crew reported yet ?

[pzu]

No significant updates - was probably a 737-200 ex Tunisia

see

http://www.sudan.net/news/posted/6920.html

[Flight Safety]

Child only survivor of Sudan crash
Tuesday, July 8, 2003 Posted: 11:28 AM EDT (1528 GMT)

(CNN) -- A child is the only survivor of a Sudan airways passenger jet that crashed, killing 105 passengers and 11 crew.

The plane, a Boeing 737 on a domestic flight, crashed Tuesday morning shortly after takeoff from the Red Sea town of Port Sudan in the northeast of the country.

"Only one child has survived," government spokesman Abdel Hamid Abdeen told CNN. "This is a very, very tragic accident. A big human loss."

The child, a 2-year-old boy, was rushed to hospital in good condition, Red Sea provincial government spokesman Salah Ali Ahmed told Sudanese television, The Associated Press reported.

The plane came down in wasteland about 5 km (3 miles) from Port Sudan airport. No damage or casualties have been reported on the ground.

The pilot reported "technical difficulties" about 10 minutes after the plane took off for Khartoum and crashed a short time later as he tried to return to the Port Sudan airport.

"The pilot contacted the tower and decided to return to the airport. While trying to land, the plane crashed," he said.

Sudan Airways officials said 55 Sudanese men, 27 women,16 children and seven foreigners, including Malaysians and French, were on the flight. No other details on the passengers were known.

The dead were moved from the charred remains of Flight SD 39 to morgues in Port Sudan.

Abdeen said that as far as he was aware the plane had no history of technical problems. Technical teams are being sent from Khartoum to Port Sudan to investigate.

There have been few passenger plane crashes in recent years in Sudan. A year ago, a Sudan Airways cargo plane crashed into a residential area of Bangui, the capital of the Central African Republic, killing 23 people, mostly passengers and crew.

In 1986, 60 people died when a Sudan Airways passenger plane was hit by a guerilla SAM-7 missile shortly after takeoff from Malakal in southern Sudan, where the Islamic government has been fighting a 20-year civil war with rebels.

[Konkordski]

The 737 is not Tunisian, been owned by Sudan A/w since it came off the production line.

[Bubbette]

Love that Sudan net post--blame it on the US!

[Homer Simpson]

"The accident has been caused by the lack of spare parts. There are no spare parts available to service Boeings in Sudan because of the American embargo imposed in the 1970s," Foreign Minister Moustapha Osman Ismail told reporters here.

"This plane had not been serviced for five or six years,"

I assume Mr Ismail was happy that his government allowed the national carrier to fly this unserviced / unserviceable aircraft - as long as it didn't crash.

In the corrupt world of African politics, I suspect that Mr Ismail and his cronies are mourning allot more than the loss of a few of his countrymen. An ageing 737 may not be worth alot but it would have formed a large part of his retirement fund.

:*

P.S. Mig15 - You just don't get it do you. Of course the word "darkies" is offensive - that's the point. You're "P.C." up your own arse response only highlights your stupidity and while I'm at it, I doubt the relatives of the the people you sanctimoniously express condolences for are concerned about the "series" of the particular 737 involved. Stick to topping up the oils at your disused airfield. :rolleyes:

[dicksynormous]

nice one homer.
the level of eulogising on this forum is usually directly related to the demographic/racial staus of the people in the accident. i.e pages and pages for one ba captain but next to nothing on 100plus dead africans on a russian freighter.This crash has achieved an unprecedented level of sympathy for an african accident, but only after the "darkie" comment.

go figure.

[VHF1]

before anyone comments on what im about to ask, i do care when such a terrible loss of life occurs. however i am curious as to the 737 model involved. looking at the wreckage, and in particular the engines, on sky news it looks very like a 200.....anyone got any details

[Golf Charlie Charlie]

I think it has to be a 737-200. Sudan Airways has owned one from new since 1975 and recently leased in two others from Tunis Air. They have no other 737 types.

[pzu]

Further to my earlier post, see also

http://www.sudan.net/news/posted/6924.html

pzu

[springbok449]

Toad, no need to justify yourself just because of few people didn't get your irony, I think what you were trying to say was perfectly valid!

[Nopax,thanx]

This would support Toad's remark perfectly......

From the Malaysian Newspaper 'The Star'

"No Malaysians were travelling on the ill-fated Sudanese airliner which crashed shortly after taking off from an airport on the Red Sea coast before dawn Tuesday.

The Malaysian ambassador to Sudan Datuk Abdul Mubin Razali, when contacted in Khartoum, said no Malaysian was travelling on the airliner.

"So far, from the passengers’ list provided by Sudan Airways and the Foreign Affairs Ministry, no Malaysian is listed in the list.

"But we are still checking," he added.

There are 10 Malaysians working at the Petronas refinery in Port Sudan."

No mention of the unfortunate victims at all, and this is the full article.

Oh yes, and no spare parts for Boeings in Sudan? The last place I worked at had Sudan as a major customer - embargo? Quite ineffective!

[Ennie]

Why is it that here a post was started for people to discuss the tragic fact that a Boeing 737 crashed killing 116 people.

Within three posts once again a thread has been turned in to a slanging match, why is this?

I was thinking that this thread might be worth a look at as I only caught the tail end of the news report, but as usual it's the same old **** going on with this website.

A few years ago pprune was a valuable tool, it certainly helped me get my job.

What happend??:E

[akerosid]

It is regrettable that we've spent about half of this thread on a slanging match, rather than discussing the aircraft itself.

I often wonder why news agencies focus on whether there were British (or whatever other) nationalities on board; it has nothing at all to do with racism, but rather on an attempt to make the news relevant to the local audience. Obviously, it's relevant to the likes of us, being aviation people in one way or another, but Joe Bloggs at home might well say, "why do I need to know about a plane crash 3,000 miles away?"

Unfortunately, it does now appear that one British national was among the passengers lost.

Focusing on the aircraft and accident itself, Aviation Safety Network provides a fascinating statistics bulletin about the crash. This was the 94th loss of a 737-200 (84 crashes, 4 hijackings and 6 other occurrences) and the 114th overall of a 737.
8th worst 737 accident and 13th for Sudan Airways (overall), but worst ever air crash in Sudan. Sudan has experienced 38 hull losses since 1945.

The acft was ST-AFK, 429th 737 off the line, delivered in '75.

[Ennie]

Thanks akerosid,

Thats what I hoped I would find when I logged on!
How much longer are these 200's gonna be around??

I travelled on a Ryanair 200 in January, although I appreciate it will be being maintained, it was a bit of a boneshaker!!!

[strafer]

It's perfectly natural to be more concerned with events if they affect people of your nationality. Something is most shocking when it affects members of your own family, slightly less so with people from your home town, slightly less when your own countrymen or women etc, etc. The only reason this event is being discussed at all here is because it is aviation related.

I mean, they're not talking about it on the Professional Bus Drivers Rumour Network are they? (Although there's probably some sanctimonious idiot asking them to respect the loss of life on the Routemaster that overturned in Timbuctoo).

[Kalium Chloride]

It's an unwritten law in the news industry that the further from your shores a tragedy occurs, the higher the toll has to climb before you'll read about it.

Before the cynics step in, it's nothing to do with disrespect for the victims.

It's simply that selling papers is a business and people are more likely to pick up a paper if the front page is something they can relate to, especially emotionally. That's why a good editor never underestimates the power of a human element story.

There were two big human element stories yesterday - the kid who was found after the abduction scare, and the failed Siamese twins operation.

Both were hugely powerful, and packed a far greater emotional punch than a jet crash in the desert. Despite the Sudanese death toll, the crash was too remote from reality to a British paper reader. Same with the Bangladesh ferry.

[DSR10]

Lest we forget because its too far away 400 drowned in ferry accident, 200 survive by swimming ashore. There were no US citizens onboard
Bangladesh 8/07/03

What a load of hypocritical crap that superceeds this.
If one American dies does that equal 100 Foreigners to get a mention on Fox or CNN

[PaperTiger]

If one American dies does that equal 100 Foreigners to get a mention on Fox or CNNThe ratio may be off, but the sentiment is right on. And let's not just point fingers at the US media, all the English-language news outlets I've seen (British, Australian, Canadian) do exactly the same. Evidence suggests it is also true for other languages (see Malaysia above).

Is this a mindset peculiar to news editors or are they in fact giving the (majority of) audience precisely the info they want ? It never occurs to me to want to know the nationality of those who die in air crashes, but non-aviation types probably have a different outlook.

I think most immediately saw the intent of Toad's original post :rolleyes: , although it probably didn't need saying again.

[4wings]

There's an old story that British news editors would give at best one column inch to "Small earthquake in Chile, not many dead".

My wife and I were in Chile during the Kosovo 'war' - although 11 weeks long, it hardly got a mention in the Chilean media. As we said to each other "Small war in Europe, not many dead.

[richie-rich]

I am studying Journalism at uni and doing my training at teh same time. So, an input wouldnt come out of the line for you all.

It is natural for Any newspaper to take stance on it's national perspective. I am sure ozzie newspapers have reported the same news with a small paragraph attached to it that went like "No Australian are reported to be onboard of the fatal crash" though I dont have evidence to support my opinion here. Dont blame the English newspapers. Mark it from now and everytime you are reading any maganize or broadsheet or happen to watch a news on t.v, always check for this. It's gonna be an interesting observation, wouldnt it? Cant blame the Malays in taht regard, can we? :)

take care all
Richie

[Gertrude the Wombat]

I am studying Journalism at uni ... teh ... wouldnt ... it's national perspective ... wouldnt ... taht Please don't take this as anything other than serious helpful advice.

As others have pointed out in this thread what gives people jobs in the media is the fact that punters are prepared to buy their product. Some punters (not all, perhaps) take their news media vastly more seriously if the spelling and grammar are correct. (OK, this is from a Grauniad reader, but even so.)

[richie-rich]

Dear Gertrude the Wombat

Some punters (not all, perhaps) take their news media vastly more seriously if the spelling and

Apologies for the grammatical and spelling errors. Call them "typos," buddy.

PaperTiger

Is this a mindset peculiar to news editors or are they in fact giving the (majority of) audience precisely the info they want ? It never occurs to me to want to know the nationality of those who die in air crash.......

They are precisely giving the info the "locals" want, not what an American living in England wants. 'Course all of you have observed the same over the years thanx to the coverages done by various media post 911, Iraq War. But theres more to simply publishing stories for their own interest. It would take me a thesis to convince and elaborate this issue, but lets leave that, shall we? Back to the original topic then :ok:

Richie

DSR10
Spot on! I am sure other ppruners would object to the ratio you mentioned, nevertheless, how many news stations covered that news elaborately outside Bangladesh? Yes, some did, but that was a tiny mouse compared to the coverage the Michael guy got after being kicked into Singaporean jail back in '99-'00. A 30 seconds news in a channel in Oz was basically how the ozzies came to learn about the tragedy. C'est tout!

Anyways, dont want to drag the topic with impertinent stuffs.

Take care all
Richie

[boiler]

Back to the subject, the Sudanese Airways is now denying what the Interior Minister has said about lack of spare parts and maintenance. This should be interesting.

[Lsak]

From Guardian International:

``One engine developed a technical problem. The pilot killed that engine and told the tower he was returning,'' al-Bahi said. ``But things developed quickly and in about 10 minutes the plane crashed.''

I think this is more to the point.

My thoughts are with the relatives of the deceased.

[Danny]

Next person to post on this thread had better make sure it is relevant to the topic. Anyone else who wants to carry on the debate about journalistic morals can do so in Jet Blast. Posting any more non relevant debate on this thread will just be deleted.

Responses to this post are not necessary. :*

[homesick rae]

An ex colleague of mine whom is also ex Sudan Airways lost 3 friends in this tragedy. (The Flight Deck Crew and the Purser.) The Purser was apparently called out on standby...We just never know in our industry...

Thoughts are with family and friends and also to all of us who continue to fly the blue horizons...

Personally, I feel there is no room for slanging matches when it comes to topics of this nature.

[Oceanic]

KHARTOUM, Sudan (July 10) - A 3-year-old Sudanese boy who was the sole survivor of a plane crash that killed 116 people will be flown aboard a medically equipped plane to London for surgery.

The president of the United Arab Emirates, Sheik Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, will charter a plane from Germany to fly to the Sudanese capital, Khartoum, and pick up the boy, Mohammed el-Fateh Osman.

The child, whose mother died in the crash, is in a stable condition in a Khartoum hospital after first being treated in Port Sudan, close to where the Sudan Airways Boeing 737 crashed shortly after takeoff Tuesday.

Sheik Zayed, who left the Emirates this week for Switzerland on a private visit, announced Wednesday that he will personally pay for the child's transfer to London and treatment, the Emirates' official news agency reported.

The physician monitoring the child, Dr. Omar el-Amin, said Thursday that his hospital has been directed to accept the offer.

``We have all the facilities here to perform the operations, but the government is saying we could not but accept this offer ... in the best interest of the child,'' he told The Associated Press.

Abdel Hadi Abu Sabaa, a relative of the child, told reporters that he and a female relative would accompany the boy to London.

``We have been served with special passports from the Foreign Ministry and the British Embassy issued visas for us,'' Abu Sabaa said.

The boy's father and elder sister live in Omdurman, the twin city of Khartoum.

It was unclear which hospital in London the boy would be taken to or when he would leave. The plane is expected in Khartoum on Friday.

Aviation experts have been probing the ill-fated airliner's black box and other evidence in a bid to learn what caused the crash, which killed 116 people, including three people from India and one each from Britain, China, Ethiopia and the United Arab Emirates. There was also a woman whose nationality was unknown, state radio said.

A team of experts flew to the debris-covered scene to investigate the crash, and recovered the black box flight recorder Tuesday. Initial reports cited a technical problem.

[Few Cloudy]

So - through a glass darkly - I get the message that an engine was shut down. I wonder what happened next..

[pzu]

For info:

http://www.sudan.net/news/posted/6934.html


pzu

[pzu]

Further Update

U.S. team arrives in Sudan to assist plane crash probe
3/8/2003
15:25:59: EST (-5 GMT) U.S. team arrives in Sudan to assist plane crash probe KHARTOUM, Sudan, Jul 31, 2003 (AP) -- U.S. investigators have arrived in Sudan to investigate the site of this month's Sudan Airways passenger plane crash that killed 115 people, a spokesman for the national carrier said Thursday. The four-member delegation comprises officials from the National Transport Safety Board and the Federal Aviation Authority, plus a Boeing representative and an official from the company that makes engines for the aircraft manufacturer. Omar Ali, the spokesman for Sudan Airways, said the delegation offered to assist the crash investigation in Port Sudan, the scene of the July 8 crash that left only one survivor - 3-year-old Mohammed el-Fateh Osman who is undergoing treatment in a London children's hospital for burns and the loss of part of one leg. The investigators have inspected the site and the engines and other remains of the Boeing 737 that crashed after taking off from Port Sudan. The plane was bound for the capital, Khartoum. A statement released by the airline Thursday said the U.S. delegation's findings will be shared with a Sudanese-British committee that is leading the crash investigation. Aviation experts have been probing the ill-fated airliner's "black box" recorder and other evidence to try to learn what caused the crash. Initial reports have cited a technical problem.

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