Sudan plane bursts into flames, 120 killed

By Andrew Heavens

KHARTOUM (Reuters) - A Sudan Airways plane burst into flames after landing at Khartoum airport on Tuesday and 120 of the 217 passengers died, the head of the airport's medical services said.

"There are 120 bodies and 97 survivors," Major-General Mohamed Osman Mahjoub told Reuters.

Sudanese television showed film of the aircraft ablaze in the darkness while emergency workers played water hoses on the burning fuselage. The airliner, identified by the broadcaster as an Airbus, was carrying 203 passengers and 14 crew.

"The operation to recover bodies from the plane is going on now," police deputy director general Al Adel Ajeb told Sudan Television. "It is a difficult operation because some bodies are completely burnt and there are body parts..."

One passenger said the plane, which had flown from Amman, 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.

At the time of the landing a dust storm in the Sudanese capital was restricting visibility, residents said.