AIRCRAFT COLLISION CLOSES KHARTOUM RUNWAY
(Posted 03rd October 2018)
Two Sudan Air Force Antonov AN26 and AN32 aircraft collided on the Khartoum airport runway earlier today, effectively grounding air traffic in and out of Sudan’s capital city.
One of the two aircraft, the AN26, first entered service in 1980 under MSN 10404 while for the other plane involved in the accident no such information is available at this time.
From details received does it appear that the AN26 sped down the runway for take off before being impacted by the AN32 at its rear section, resulting in a breakup of both planes. It is not clear if the AN32 was landing at the same time the AN26 was taking off but a video clip seen shows the incredible scene of two aircraft on the runway at the same time, one being ‘caught’ by the other at considerable speed at ten minutes past ten local time in the morning.
The airport’s air traffic control as well as the pilots of both planes will be subject to further questioning when the enquiry into the accident formally commences to establish what instructions ATC had issued to the two planes. It remains to be seen if conflicting instructions were given by ATC leading to the accident or if one of the crews ignored instructions, hence causing the accident.
No information was released until now if there were any casualties among the crews as the airport remained closed for accident investigators to take stock of the position of the two aircrafts before starting to clear the runway of debris.
