Sudania Air Cargo Boeing 707 accident near Nairobi
Boeing 707-321C · The Sudania Air Cargo Boeing 707 accident near Nairobi occurred on 4 December 1990
From Khartoum International Airport (KRT) to Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (NBO)
Event
- 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
- Event fatalities
- 10 · all aircraft and ground
- Ground fatalities
- Unknown
- Occupants
- Unknown
- Survivors
- 0
- 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
- Unknown
- 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
Boeing 707-321C
- Aircraft type
- Boeing 707
- Category
- Airplane · from aircraft type
- 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-SAC
- Operator
- Sudania Air Cargo
- Onboard fatalities
- 10
- Route
- From Khartoum International Airport (KRT)To Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (NBO)
Cause areas
- Personnel issues › Action/decision
- Personnel issues › Task performance
From the investigation findings the Wikipedia article reports, sorted into the NTSB's cause areas with AI assistance.
Not plotted · Not plotted: the Wikipedia article gives no coordinates, and its site names no town or airport that matches exactly.
From the Wikipedia article
The Sudania Air Cargo Boeing 707 accident near Nairobi occurred on 4 December 1990. On that day, the Boeing 707-321C with the aircraft registration ST-SAC, operating a cargo flight from Khartoum to Nairobi, was flown into terrain in poor visibility during the approach to Nairobi-Jomo Kenyatta Airport, collided with power pylons and crashed to the ground, killing all ten occupants on board.
Accident sequence
The aircraft's approach to Nairobi-Jomo Kenyatta Airport took place in poor visibility and under adverse weather conditions. Visibility was only 500 metres and the cloud base was at 100 feet. The pilots received clearance from air traffic control in Nairobi to land on runway 06 of the airport. When the crew was unable to make out the runway, the captain decided to abort the approach and initiated a missed approach. A few minutes later, while the pilots were carrying out a second approach, the aircraft was flown below the glide path, grazed a power pylon, was flown into high-voltage cables and crashed to the ground five kilometres short of runway 06. The aircraft caught fire on impact, and all 10 occupants were killed.
Investigation and cause
Cause
The accident investigators considered it plausible that the pilots had descended below the minimum descent altitude because they wanted to establish visual contact with the ground. The pilots had also failed to carry out standard missed approach procedures during the first missed approach. In addition, the aircraft had not been equipped with a ground proximity warning system that could have warned the pilots of the imminent collision with the ground.
Translated into English with AI assistance from the German Wikipedia article “Flugunfall einer Boeing 707 der Sudania Air Cargo bei Nairobi” (revision 255218832, retrieved 2026-09-19) by its authors, under CC BY-SA 4.0. Extracted as plain text: references, tables, images and some sections are left out; the translation may contain errors, and long articles were cut to their first 700 words. Read the article
Sources
German Wikipedia article: Flugunfall einer Boeing 707 der Sudania Air Cargo bei Nairobi
- Translation
- Into English with AI assistance; names of linked operators and aircraft types from Wikidata. It may contain errors.
- Revision
- 255218832 · 2025-04-17 · retrieved 2026-09-19
- Wikidata
- Q133880337
- Licence
- Text CC BY-SA 4.0, by the article's authors; Wikidata CC0; town positions GeoNames (CC BY 4.0)
Where each value comes from
- Record
- de Wikipedia article "Flugunfall einer Boeing 707 der Sudania Air Cargo bei Nairobi" (page 13443211, revision 255218832), translated into English with AI assistance
- Date
- Wikipedia infobox: date
- Place and country
- Wikipedia infobox: site
- Map position
- none
- Aircraft, operator and route
- Wikipedia infobox: aircraft type, registration, operator, origin and destination; route airports from the linked airport articles' Wikidata codes (OurAirports)
- Operation
- Reviewed correction (2026-09-26): A Boeing 707 of the cargo carrier Sudania Air Cargo on an international cargo flight: an air carrier cargo flight. The article: "the Boeing 707-321C with the aircraft registration ST-SAC, operating a cargo flight from Khartoum to Nairobi"
- Fatalities
- Wikipedia infobox: aircraft fatalities
- Ground fatalities
- not stated in the Wikipedia infobox
- Summary
- Wikipedia article lead
Source notes (1)
- Wikipedia · Facts from the German Wikipedia article's infobox, translated into English with AI assistance, not checked against an investigation report. Independent review pending.