Sudan Airways Flight 139

Not to be confused with Sudan Airways Flight 109.

This article is about an accident experienced by Sudan Airways in 2003. For other uses, see Flight 139.

Sudan Airways Flight 139 was a Sudan Airways passenger flight that crashed on 8 July 2003 at Port Sudan. The Boeing 737 aircraft was operating a domestic scheduled Port Sudan–Khartoum passenger service. Some 15 minutes after takeoff, the aircraft lost power in one of its engines, which prompted the crew to return to the airport for an emergency landing. In doing so, the pilots missed the airport runway, and the airplane descended until it hit the ground, disintegrating after impact. Of the 117 people aboard, 116 died.^[1]

Sudan Airways Flight 139

ST-AFK, The aircraft involved in the accident
Accident
Date	8 July 2003 (2003-07-08)
Summary	Mechanical failure followed by pilot error
Site	Port Sudan 19°37′12″N 37°13′00″E
Aircraft
Aircraft type	Boeing 737-200C
Aircraft name	White Nile
Operator	Sudan Airways
IATA flight No.	SD139
ICAO flight No.	SUD139
Call sign	SUDANAIR 139
Registration	ST-AFK
Flight origin	Port Sudan New International Airport
Destination	Khartoum International Airport
Occupants	117
Passengers	106
Crew	11
Fatalities	116
Injuries	1
Survivors	1

Aircraft and crew

The aircraft involved in the accident was a Boeing 737-2J8C, c/n 21169, registered ST-AFK.^[2] Powered by two Pratt & Whitney JT8D-7 engines, it had its maiden flight on 29 August 1975, and was delivered new to Sudan Airways on 15 September 1975.^[2][3] At the time of the accident, the aircraft was almost 28 years old.^[1]

The pilots involved were Captain Awad Jaber, First Officer Amir al-Nujumi, and Second Officer Walid Khair.^[4]

Accident

The airplane had departed Port Sudan at 4:00 am (UTC+3), bound for Khartoum.^[5] Captain Jaber radioed about ten minutes after take-off about a problem with one of the engines, and that he would return to the airport to make an emergency landing. However, the plane plummeted into the ground before returning to the airfield and immediately caught fire.^[6][7]

All but one of the 117 occupants of the aircraft— most of them Sudanese— perished in the accident.^[8][9][10] There were three Indians, a Briton, a Chinese, an Emirati, and an Ethiopian among the dead as well.^[5] A two-year-old boy was the sole survivor.^{[5][11][12][13][14][15]}

Then-Sudanese foreign minister Mustafa Osman Ismail raised the trade embargo imposed by the U.S. government in 1997 as a contributing factor to the accident, claiming the airline was unable to get spare parts for the maintenance of its fleet because of sanctions.^[3][16][17] The aircraft involved in the accident, in particular, had not been serviced for years.^[18]

See also

• Aviation accidents and incidents
• Sudan Airways Flight 109