SHARJAH: A Sudanese cargo plane, which was heading to Sudan’s capital Khartoum crashed shortly after take-off from Sharjah airport on Wednesday, killing six people on board.
Among the six dead is the plane’s captain, Mohammad Ali and Mohammad Al Fatih, an engineer, according to Sharjah authorities.
The Boeing 707 aircraft, operated by Sudan Airways on lease from Azza Air, went down at about 3.15 p.m. one kilometer from the runway.
“Six crew members, all Sudanese, died when the plane caught fire soon after crashing,” said Sharjah police director general Brig. Humeid Al Hudaidi.
The cause of the crash was not immediately known, but emergency response crews had retrieved the “black box” from the wreckage and were investigating, Dubai-based satellite TV network Al-Arabiya reported.
The airport was closed for two hours after the accident and flights were diverted to Dubai and Ras Al Khaimah airports, Mohammad Ehab, duty manager at Sharjah airport, said.
Col. Waheed Al Serkal, the head of Sharjah Civil Defense, said it took crews from Sharjah, Ajman and Dubai more than two and a half hours to put out the flames.
“Six bodies were found in the plane,” he added.
“We have launched an investigation and picking up bits and pieces from the debris,”said a top civil aviation official in Sharjah.
Eyewitnesses said that the plane flipped before it burst as flames. The plane was tilted to a side and was unbalanced .
“When we saw it, it was almost bursting as flames” said Balakrishnan who work at a nearby factory.
