Aviation experts look for cause of Sudanese airliner crash

KHARTOUM, Sudan -- Aviation experts were examining a Sudanese airliner's black box and other evidence Wednesday to determine why the plane crashed shortly after takeoff, killing 116 people.\nThe Sudan Airways plane, headed from Port Sudan on the northeastern coast to the capital, crashed before dawn Tuesday in a wooded area just after takeoff. The Boeing 737's wreckage was badly burned, and authorities decided to rapidly bury all bodies, including eight foreigners.\n"The bodies were buried in a mass grave after performing the Muslim prayer because the conditions of the bodies would not allow transporting and delivering them to the relatives," the Red Sea State governor, Hatem el-Wassila, told the Sudan News Agency.\nThe sole survivor, 3-year-old Mohammed el-Fateh Osman, lost his right leg and suffered burns, the governor said. The boy has been transferred to a hospital in Khartoum.\n"A nomad found him lying on a bush, crying, and brought him to security men," said the boy's aunt, Khadiga Abu Sabaa, who flew to Port Sudan and brought him back to Khartoum on Tuesday night.\nState television broadcast pictures of the boy early Wednesday showing he had lost the lower part of his right leg and suffered burns to the face, neck, back and one of his hands.\nSurgeons said Osman was in stable condition but would undergo two surgeries Wednesday evening.\n"His kidneys were not functioning well. He had suffered dehydration and burns, but now he is doing well," Dr. Omer el Amin told The Associated Press.\nThe boy's mother died in the crash. His father and elder sister live in Omdurman, the twin city of Khartoum.\n"If you were to see the state of the bodies, and the death of those people, you would know it was a miracle dictated by God that this child has come out alive," State Minister for Aviation Mohammed Hassan al-Bahi told The Associated Press.\nA team of experts flew to the debris-covered scene to investigate the crash, and recovered the black box flight recorder Tuesday. Initial reports cited a technical problem.\nThe plane, a Boeing 737-200C, was delivered to the airline in September 1975.\nAsked whether the crash was caused by poor maintenance, al-Bahi told reporters: "It's too early to make any judgments about the cause."\nEleven crew members and 105 passengers died, including three people from India and one each from Britain, China, Ethiopia and the United Arab Emirates. There was also a woman whose nationality was unknown, state radio said.\nA senior air force official and a member of Parliament also died in the crash, it said.\nMinutes after takeoff, the pilot radioed the control tower about a problem in one engine.\n"One engine developed a technical problem. The pilot killed that engine and told the tower he was returning," al-Bahi said. "But things developed quickly and in about 10 minutes the plane crashed."\nForeign Affairs Minister Mustafa Osman Ismail blamed U.S. sanctions imposed against Sudan in 1997, saying they had led to shortages of vital aircraft parts.\n"We simply cannot get the parts to maintain our airplanes," he said.\nHe called on President Bush, who is on a tour of Africa, to drop the sanctions. The United States imposed sanctions claiming Sudan sponsored terrorism, allowed human rights abuses and destabilized neighboring countries.\nIn Washington, State Department spokesman Philip T. Reeker said there was no ban on equipment needed for aviation safety.\nPort Sudan is the country's only significant port.