A FEDERAL AIRLINES ANTONOV An-24 on a Sudanese domestic flight crashed while attempting an emergency landing in poor visibility near Haj Yousif, Khartoum, Sudan, on 3 May, killing all six crew and 47 passengers on board. Sudan's transport minister Tigani Adam al-Tahir says that the crew had been told shortly after take-off from Wau in southern Sudan that its destination, Khartoum Airport, was closed because of low visibility in dust. The airline says that the crew had clearance to land and that they had made eight approaches before crashing in the north-eastern sector of Khartoum.

nOn 26 February, a Sudan Air Force Lockheed Martin C-130 Hercules crashed 20km (14nm) south-west of Khartoum inbound to the airport from El Obeid. The cause of the accident remains a mystery because it happened in daylight and good weather and there had been no notification of problems. All 91 people on board were killed.

DELTA AIR LINES, OFFICIAL AIRLINE of the 1996 Olympic Games, has begun international flights with a McDonnell Douglas MD-11, painted in the Olympic colour scheme. A Boeing 767 is already in service on domestic flights decorated in the same scheme, which incorporates the official "torch" logo of the Games, to be held in July-August in Delta's home town of Atlanta, Georgia. Only these two aircraft will carry the colours. The front end of the colour scheme will also be adopted as part of a Delta plan to revamp its corporate image.

Source: Flight International