Minister among 32 killed as helicopter crashes

The delegation was travelling aboard a chartered helicopter to the volatile South Kordofan state to attend prayers on the first day of the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Fitr, which marks the end of the fasting month of Ramadan.

The helicopter went down “because of harsh weather conditions” near Talodi, a small town about 400 miles south-west of the capital, Khartoum, state-run news agency SUNA said.

A Sudanese official said the aircraft slammed into a mountain just before it was to land in Talodi, as seasonal heavy rains in the region left the pilots with “zero visibility”.

The office of Sudan’s president Omar al-Bashir released a list of all 26 passengers and six crew members who died in the crash.

Minister of endowment Ghadi al-Sadeq and a former adviser to Mr al-Bashir, Makki Balayela, were on the list, as were the two generals and other officials. A four-member TV crew from Sudan’s state television also died in the crash.

Sudan has a poor aviation safety record, with a large number of jet accidents occurring on landing. In late 2010, a plane carrying 36 people crashed on landing in Sudan’s western Darfur region, killing at least two people.

And in May 2008 – before South Sudan became a separate country – a plane crash in a remote area in the south killed 24 people.

Five years earlier, a Sudan Airways Boeing 737 en route from Port Sudan to Khartoum crashed soon after take-off, killing all 115 people on board.

A United Airlines flight landed safely at Newark, New Jersey, after taking off from the airport for Berlin then returning when something apparently went wrong with the engine.

Airline spokesman Joe Micucci said the Boeing 757 “experienced a mechanical issue with the engine” after take-off from Newark Liberty International Airport at 5.50pm. He said Flight 96 landed safely at about 8.10pm.

The plane was carrying 173 passengers and crew members. A Port Authority spokesman said no one was injured.