Sudan Airways Flight 139
Boeing 737-200C · Crashed following attempted emergency landing
From Port Sudan New International Airport (PZU) to Khartoum International Airport (KRT)
Event
- NTSB case
- WAS03RA019
- Event typeAccident: someone killed or seriously injured, or the aircraft substantially damaged (NTSB definition). Incident: an occurrence that affected or could have affected safety, short of that. Glossary
- Accident
- InvestigationHow far the investigation had got when the record was published: preliminary, ongoing, final or completed. Unknown where the source does not say. Glossary
- Unknown · led by another country; figures from NTSB notifications
- Event fatalities
- 116 · all aircraft and ground
- Ground fatalities
- 0
- Occupants
- 117
- Survivors
- 1
- InjuriesFatal: death within 30 days. Serious: over 48 hours in hospital within a week, most broken bones, severe bleeding, nerve or organ damage, or serious burns. Minor: anything less. Glossary
- 1
- OperationWhat kind of flying it was, grouped by the rules it flew under: airline (US Part 121), air taxi and commuter (Part 135), general aviation (Part 91 and similar), military or government. Glossary
- Airline
- WeatherVisual meteorological conditions (VMC): good enough to fly by looking outside. Instrument conditions (IMC): cloud or low visibility, flying by instruments. Glossary
- Not recorded
Boeing 737-200C
- Flight
- SD139
- Aircraft type
- Boeing 737
- Category
- Airplane
- RegistrationThe aircraft's tail number, such as N12345 or G-ABCD. Registrations are reissued, so the same one years apart can be a different aircraft. Glossary
- ST-AFK
- Operator
- Sudan Airways
- Onboard fatalities
- 116
- Route
- From Port Sudan New International Airport (PZU)To Khartoum International Airport (KRT)
- Aircraft age
- Not recorded
- Flight rulesThe regulations the flight operated under: in the US, Part 91 (general aviation), Part 121 (airlines), Part 135 (air taxi and commuter) and others; for flights abroad, the NTSB's coarser commercial or non-commercial code. Glossary
- Non-U.S., Commercial
- Phase of flightThe stage of the flight when things started to go wrong: standing, taxi, takeoff, initial climb, en route, maneuvering, approach or landing. Glossary
- Not recorded
- Defining eventThe single coded event the NTSB judges best describes what happened (records from 2008 on). Older records name the first occurrence in the sequence instead. Glossary
- Not recorded
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- Destroyed
Cause areas
No findings designated as a cause are recorded in the NTSB data yet.
Approximate · Coordinates from the Wikipedia article; not checked against an investigation report.
From the Wikipedia article
Sudan Airways Flight 139 was a Sudan Airways passenger flight that crashed on 8 July 2003 at Port Sudan. The Boeing 737-200 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 of them died.
Accident
The airplane had departed Port Sudan at 4:00 am (UTC+3), bound for Khartoum. 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.
All but one of the 117 occupants of the aircraft— most of them Sudanese— perished in the accident. There were three Indians, a Briton, a Chinese, an Emirati, and an Ethiopian among the dead as well. A two-year-old boy was the sole survivor. This crash is the deadliest accident to occur in Sudan, to date.
Investigation and cause
Cause
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. The aircraft involved in the accident, in particular, had not been serviced for years. Sanctions were imposed following an executive order by President Bill Clinton, banning the export of goods and technology to Sudan, due to the country's "support for international terrorism, ongoing efforts to destabilize neighboring governments, and the prevalence of human rights violations." In response to the claims, the United States Department of State said there was no ban on parts needed for aviation safety.
Although initially attributed to a mechanical failure, it was later suggested that after one of the aircraft's engines failed on takeoff, the chief pilot handed controls to the "novice" copilot as a "learning experience."
Text from the Wikipedia article “Sudan Airways Flight 139” (revision 1363395482, retrieved 2026-09-18) by its authors, under CC BY-SA 4.0. Extracted as plain text: references, tables, images and some sections are left out. Read the article
Sources
Wikipedia article: Sudan Airways Flight 139
- Article
- Sudan Airways Flight 139
- Revision
- 1363395482 · 2026-07-09 · retrieved 2026-09-18
- Wikidata
- Q935682
- Licence
- Text CC BY-SA 4.0, by the article's authors; Wikidata CC0; town positions GeoNames (CC BY 4.0)
NTSB record WAS03RA019
- Event ID
- 20040819X01260
- Case number
- WAS03RA019
- Dataset
- historical-pre2008
- Source SHA-256
- 89e2df6d848e7ab3b42e7d7c7a03ff403303057a26ca04c95b3ea67201c3ce74
Where each value comes from
- Record
- Wikipedia article "Sudan Airways Flight 139" (page 10874936, revision 1363395482); merged with NTSB case WAS03RA019 (events / aircraft)
- Date
- Wikipedia infobox: date
- Place and country
- Wikipedia infobox: site
- Map position
- Wikipedia: Wikipedia article coordinates
- Aircraft, operator and route
- Wikipedia infobox: aircraft type, registration, operator, origin and destination; route airports from the linked airport articles' Wikidata codes (OurAirports); gaps and aircraft details from NTSB record WAS03RA019
- Operation
- airline flight number in the infobox
- Fatalities
- Reviewed (2026-09-19): Contemporaneous AP report (Lawrence Journal-World, 9 Jul 2003), consistent with the ASN summary (116 killed, 1 survived), https://www2.ljworld.com/news/2003/jul/09/surviving_boy_loses/
- Ground fatalities
- Reviewed (2026-09-19): Contemporaneous AP report (Lawrence Journal-World, 9 Jul 2003), consistent with the ASN summary (116 killed, 1 survived), https://www2.ljworld.com/news/2003/jul/09/surviving_boy_loses/
- Summary
- Wikipedia infobox: summary
Source notes (3)
- One occurrence in two sources, merged: the Wikipedia article "Sudan Airways Flight 139" and NTSB case WAS03RA019, matched by the same aircraft registration and date. For this event outside the United States Wikipedia's values are used where the two differ; each value names its source.
- Death toll settled: the NTSB record (WAS03RA019) gives 115 and the Wikipedia article 116; Contemporaneous AP report (Lawrence Journal-World, 9 Jul 2003), consistent with the ASN summary (116 killed, 1 survived) gives 116. 117 aboard (11 crew + 106 passengers). 116 died and a young boy survived; he was reported alive years later. NTSB's 115 matches first-day reports of 116 aboard with 115 killed. Wikipedia's reference titled 'Lone survivor ... dies' does not reflect a later death. No Sudanese final report was found. (Medium confidence, for the reason given.)
- Filled from the NTSB case API where the bulk record had no value: coordinates, departure, destination, aircraft category, damage. Values present in the bulk record are kept.