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Boy, 2, survives jet crash that kills 116

Mohamed Osman
Tuesday 08 July 2003 19:00 EDT
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A passenger aircraft crashed minutes after take-off in Sudan yesterday, killing 116 people. The only survivor was a two-year-old boy.

The captain reported technical problems as soon as the Boeing 737 left Port Sudan on the north-eastern Red Sea coast for the capital, Khartoum. The plane crashed in an uninhabited area outside the airport, about 410 miles northeast of Khartoum while trying to make an emergency landing.

Eleven crew members and 105 passengers aboard the Sudan Airways plane were killed. Among them were eight foreigners, including a Briton, three Indians, a Chinese and an Ethiopian. A senior air force official and a member of parliament were also on board, state radio report said.

A journalist said the casualties were so badly burnt that they were being buried on the spot, two or three to a coffin. "Bodies were scattered everywhere, burnt and charred and could be seen all over the place," Muhammad Osman Babikir of Al-Sahafa said.

Sudan has suffered few passenger aircraft crashes in recent years, although there have been several involving military aircraft. Two years ago, a military plane crash killed the deputy defence minister and 13 other high-ranking officers.

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