Sudan Airways Flight 109

Sudan Airways Flight 109

The aircraft involved in the accident is seen here on approach to Dubai International Airport in April 2008
Accident summary
Date 10 June 2008
Summary Runway overrun
Site Khartoum International Airport
15°35′22″N 32°33′11″E / 15.58944°N 32.55306°ECoordinates: 15°35′22″N 32°33′11″E / 15.58944°N 32.55306°E
Passengers 203
Crew 11
Fatalities 30
Survivors 184
Aircraft type Airbus A310-300
Operator Sudan Airways
Registration ‹The template Airreg is being considered for deletion.› ST-ATN
Flight origin Queen Alia International Airport
Stopover Damascus International Airport
Last stopover Port Sudan
Destination Khartoum International Airport

Sudan Airways Flight 109 was an international scheduled Amman–Damascus–Khartoum passenger service, operated with an Airbus A310-300, that crashed on landing at Khartoum International Airport on 10 June 2008, approximately at 17:00 UTC, killing 30 of 214 occupants on board.[1][2][3]

Aircraft

The aircraft involved in the accident was an Airbus A310-324, c/n 548, tail number ST-ATN, that had its maiden flight on 23 August 1990 as F-WWCV.[4] Equipped with a twin-PW4152 powerplant, it was delivered new to Singapore Airlines on 22 October 1990 and registered 9V-STU.[4][5] Re-registered VT-EVF, it was delivered to Air India on 10 March 2001.[4] The aircraft was finally registered ST-ATN, and delivered to Sudan Airways on 1 December 2007.[4] According to Airbus, it had accumulated 52,000 flight hours and 21,000 cycles.[6] The airframe was 17 years and 292 days old at the time of the accident.

Description

The flight originated in Amman and had its final destination in Khartoum with an intermediate stop in Damascus. The presence of a sandstorm and heavy rain prevented the aircraft to land at Khartoum and forced it to be diverted to Port Sudan. The aircraft was later allowed to fly back to its original destination.[7] The flight landed at Khartoum Airport at 17:26 UTC, but was not able to stop within the paved area. Following the aircraft overruning the runway and coming to rest 215 metres (705 ft) beyond the end of runway 36 a fire erupted on the starboard side.[8]:8 The slides on the side the fire started at could not be deployed; people on board evacuated the aircraft using the port side slides.[8]:9

Cause

The runway overrun was caused by a combination of a long landing flare, the wet runway, landing without autobrake selected on, and one engine thrust reverser that was deactivated.[8]:39 The aircraft had been dispatched with the port engine thrust reverser deactivated. This condition caused it to veer to the right when the captain activated reverse thrust in both engines in order to stop the aircraft within 2,080 metres (6,820 ft) of runway left.[9] Reports indicated the occurrence of a big sandstorm at Khartoum earlier that day that was followed by low visibility and heavy rain and winds at the time of the accident.[10] Contributing to the long landing flare was that the crew had been incorrectly informed that they had a 7-knot (13 km/h; 8.1 mph) headwind for landing when they actually had a 15-knot (28 km/h; 17 mph) tailwind.[8]:39

Casualties

Out of 203 passengers and 11 crew members on board the aircraft,[8]:8 29 passengers and one crew member lost their lives.[8]:9 Many of the casualties were children with disabilities and seniors returning from treatment in Amman.[11]

Notable passengers

Abbas al-Fadini (Member of the Parliament of Sudan) was on board the flight and survived unscathed[12]

See also

References

  1. ↑ Accident description at the Aviation Safety Network. Retrieved on 5 June 2012.
  2. ↑ Heavens, Andrew (11 June 2008). "Dozens killed in Sudan air crash". The Independent. Archived from the original on 5 June 2012. Retrieved 5 June 2012.
  3. ↑ "Passenger plane crashes in flames in Sudan". CNN. Archived from the original on 11 June 2008. Retrieved 10 June 2008.
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 "Airbus A310 MSN 548". AirFleets.net. Retrieved 25 January 2012.
  5. ↑ "Accident information : Airbus A310 Sudan Airways ST-ATN". Airfleets.net. Retrieved 25 January 2012.
  6. ↑ Learmount, David (13 June 2008). "Sudan A310 "veered off runway" during landing". Flightglobal. Flight International. Archived from the original on 11 September 2012.
  7. ↑ "Dozens die in Sudan jet inferno". BBC News. 10 June 2008. Archived from the original on 11 June 2014.
  8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 8.2 8.3 8.4 8.5 "Final Report: Accident involving Sudan Airways Airbus 310, Registration ST-ATN, At Khartoum Airport, On 10th of June 2008 at 1726 UTC" (PDF). Air Accident Investigation Central Directorate. 3 November 2010. Archived from the original (PDF) on 11 June 2014.
  9. ↑ Kaminski-Morrow, David (8 April 2013). "Fatal Sudan A310 overrun crew unaware of tailwind". London: Flightglobal. Archived 17 April 2015 at the Wayback Machine
  10. ↑ "14 still missing after air crash blaze". CNN. 11 June 2008. Archived from the original on 5 June 2012.
  11. ↑ "Sudan Airways Airbus crashes at Khartoum airport". Sudan Tribune. 10 June 2008. Archived from the original on 1 July 2012. Retrieved 11 September 2012.
  12. ↑ "At least 28 die in Sudan air crash disaster". London: The Times. 11 June 2008. Retrieved 11 June 2008.(subscription required)

External links