Amman – Damascus – Khartoum

On June 10, 2008 at 08:26 PM, Amman – Damascus – Khartoum experienced a crash involving Airbus A310, operated by Sudan Airways, with the event recorded near Khartoum Khartoum (<U+0627><U+0644><U+062E><U+0631><U+0637><U+0648><U+0645>).

The flight was categorized as scheduled revenue flight and the reported phase was landing (descent or approach) at a airport (less than 10 km from airport) crash site.

214 people were known to be on board, 30 fatalities were recorded, 184 survivors were identified or estimated. This corresponds to an estimated fatality rate of 14.0%.

Crew on board: 11, crew fatalities: 1, passengers on board: 203, passenger fatalities: 29, other fatalities: 0.

The listed crash cause is human factor. The Airbus 310 serial number 548 owned by Sudan Airways Was entered in Sudan Civil Register on 15/09/2007 , designated registration marks ST-ATN in accordance to registration certificate No. 0493 dated 15/09/2007 and issued with Certificate of airworthiness No AWP/COA/0203/2007 dated 19/09/2007. On the morning of 10th June at 8:30 hrs (local time 05:30 UTC) after arriving from Cairo with a deactivated no 1 engine reverse as being a carry forward defect and being labeled according to MEL, the captain accepted the aircraft to carry out its scheduled flight to Amman via Damascus. The trip en-route to Amman was uneventful. Same day in the afternoon, the Airbus A310, ST-ATN, was en-route flying from Damascus (Syria) to Khartoum (Sudan) with 203 passengers and 11 crew members on board. The Airbus approached Khartoum in the afternoon and due to bad weather conditions, the captain decided to divert to Port Sudan. The aircraft landed Port Sudan Airport normally and was refuelled with 20 tons of Jet A1. As mentioned by the Captain that he was in contact with Khartoum enquiring about the weather. After staying on ground at Port Sudan for about 1:15 hour, and being informed that the weather was getting better, the Captain decided to return back to Khartoum. A310, ST-ATN, took off to Khartoum where the captain initiated a night approach for the runway 36 as pilot flying. He got the clearance to land after the controller provided him with wind information (320° / 7 Kt) and runway condition (wet). The left engine thrust reverser was unserviceable and inhibited as per Minimum Equipment List (MEL) procedures. The aircraft landed smoothly about 17:26 UTC. R/W 36 landing and within 900 meters range from the threshold of R/W 36 as stated by the flying pilot. The captain reported that he experienced some difficulties in maintaining the aircraft on the centre line just after setting both thrust levers in the reverse position. Then he did not succeed in slowing down the aircraft nor could stop it before the end of the runway. The aircraft longitudinally overran the runway and came to a stop 215 meters after the runway end. Then it caught fire on its right side. The right hand slides could not be deployed, the crew and the passengers evacuated the aircraft from the left front slide, twenty nine passengers and one cabin crew were fatally injured.

Aircraft reference details include registration ST-ATN, MSN 548, year of manufacture 1990.