100 feared dead after plane explodes on landing

A Sudan Airways jet has exploded whilst attempting to land at Khartoum Airport and veered off the runway.

It’s feared more than 100 people are dead. Aviation officials have said 203 passengers and 11 crew were onboard the aircraft and 103 and 10 crew members have survived.

The Airbus A310 had taken off from Damascus and was trying to land in a thunderstorm. It appeared to have landed safely before then swerving off the runway and exploding into a massive fireball.

"There are missing passengers who could be still inside the plane, or left the aircraft but did not inform officials they were passengers," a police spokesman said.

One survivor stated: “The landing was "rough", the right wing was on fire. Smoke poured into the cockpit and passengers began opening emergency exit doors as the flames quickly swept into the plane.”

The cause of the accident is still unclear. John Ukec Lueth Ukec the Sudanese ambassador to Washington has put the cause of the accident down to bad weather.

"There was a lot of water on the runway and they still tried to land," he claimed. "It will be investigated and we will find out what went wrong, whether it is a technical issue or human error."

Sudan’s police chief later added:

"Bad weather caused the plane to crash-land, split into two and catch fire. We believe that most of the passengers were able to make it out and escape with their lives."

However, the director of Khartoum Airport has said a technical fault with the aircraft caused the accident. He said that the aircraft landed safely and was being instructed from the control tower about taxiing. "At that moment, one of the engines exploded and the plane caught fire. It is a technical reason," said Mr Ibrahim

This incident has added to Sudan’s poor aviation safety record. In May 24 people died in a crash in remote part of the country where members of the region’s government were killed.

A Sudan Airways Boeing 737 crashed after take off from Port Sudan killing everyone onboard in July 2003.

Aircraft makes emergency landing after engine comes off

A Boeing 737 had to make an emergency landing at Cape Town International Airport when it lost an engine during take off.

The plane was carrying over 100 people and had to circle the runway to lose fuel and to wait for the runway to be cleared of debris before landing.

It's thought the aircraft's right engine separated from the wing, a passenger said:

"I heard this huge bang, and he said, 'That's our engine that's just fallen off.' I couldn't believe it. He had to repeat it to me," she told SAPA.

"The plane started to shake a bit, but what was amazing was the staff and passengers: everybody was so calm. There was no hysteria, no nothing, it was amazing. The guy next to me seemed to know something about planes. He said, 'Don't worry: the plane will go with one engine.' So I thought, 'that's OK.'"

When the plane came to a standstill the pilot entered the cabin and everyone cheered.

The incident is still being investigated.

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2 Singapore Airlines aircraft involved in small bump.

It seems planes are hitting each other all over the place!!

At Changi Airport in Singapore two Singapore Airlines knocked into the other with the wings whilst preparing for take off.

There were no injuries.

Stephen Forshaw the company spokesman said "It is reported that the wingtips of two aircraft came into contact while both aircraft were taxiing at low speed”.

The incident occurred yesterday morning and both Boeing 777 only suffered minor damage. Passengers were on their way to Rome and Copenhagen and were later transferred onto other flights.

Forshaw later said that an investigation was getting under way with the help from both pilots. The airline would give no information on the number of passengers onboard when the accident happened.