Sudanese officials survive chopper incident in West Kordofan
July 20, 2015 (KHARTOUM) – Senior Sudanese officials have survived certain death following a forced landing of the helicopter carrying them in West Kordofan state.
The helicopter engines suffered technical failure and caught fire while the delegation was heading to the capital of East Darfur state of Ed Daein forcing the pilot to carry out an emergency landing in an area located between Al-Fula and Balila in West Kordofan state.
The officials were then evacuated to Khartoum aboard two helicopters owned by oil companies.
There have been repeated Sudanese plane crashes in recent years, the last of which was on 28 February when a helicopter carrying the political secretary of the NCP, Hamid Mumtaz, and press corps crashed as they accompanied the delegation of president Omer al-Bashir to Gedaref state as part of his re-election campaign.
Also, at Khartoum International Airport, on the same day, a helicopter burst into flames minutes after Sudan’s 2nd vice-president Hassabo Abdel Rahman disembarked upon returning from the city of Wad Medani.
In February 2012 the then minister of agriculture Abdel Halim Ismail al-Mutafi and eight other people accompanying him including Iranians investors survived a helicopter crash in eastern Sudan which killed three passengers on spot.
In August of the same year, the then minister of religious affairs, Ghazi Al-Sadiq, was killed in a plane crash in Talodi, South Kordofan.
He was heading with other government officials to the troubled state to perform Eid prayer, marking the end of the holy month of Ramadan, when his plane went down, killing him and the accompanying delegation.
(ST)