Sharjah: All six people on board a Khartoum-bound Sudanese cargo plane that crashed near Sharjah airport yesterday have been declared dead, and their bodies as well as the plane's black box have been retrieved, Sharjah authorities confirmed yesterday.
Flight FB2241, a Boeing 707 belonging to Azza Air and leased to Sudan Air, was carrying general cargo. It crashed at 3.29pm, two minutes after takeoff in a deserted area. There were no casualties on the ground.
The cause of the crash is still unknown. An investigation is under way.
Colonel Waheed Al Serkal, Director General of Sharjah Civil Defence, said it took two hours to douse the fire.
Eyewitnesses, including a pilot who flies out of Sharjah airport, said the pilot of the ill-fated aircraft, Captain Mohammad Ali, tried to avoid crashing into a populated area, veering the plane to empty land.
Ali Salem Al Midfa, Director of Sharjah International Airport, said the runway was shut for about ninety minutes. Eight flights were diverted.
A Kish Airlines flight crashed near Sharjah International Airport in February 2004, killing 43 of 46 people aboard the aircraft.
The twin-engined Fokker 50 aircraft crashed at the Sharjah-Ajman border in Al Ramaqiah residential areas.
— With inputs from Saifur Rahman, Business Editor, Mahmood Saberi, Senior Reporter and Siham Al Najami and AbbasAl Lawati, Staff Reporters
