100 SURVIVE JET FIREBALL

AP and Reuters

June 11, 2008

KHARTOUM, Sudan - A Sudanese Airbus carrying 217 people veered off the runway in a thunderstorm and burst into flames yesterday - but at least 123 of them miraculously survived by frantically jumping out emergency doors as the blaze engulfed the plane.

PHOTO GALLERY: Sudan Plane Crash

The survivors included all 11 crew members.

And even more people may have gotten off safely and left before they could be counted.

The death toll wasn't immediately clear. First reports said about 100 were killed, but officials later put the toll 28.

The nationalities of the dead and injured were not immediately known, but officials said few non-Sudanese were on board the flight, which originated in Amman, Jordan.

A survivor said the landing was "rough," and there was a sharp impact.

"The right wing was on fire," he said, adding that the entire plane was soon engulfed.

Another survivor, Al Haj Bashir, said the landing was "not normal" and that there was "an explosion in the right wing" two or three minutes after the plane touched down. A sandstorm had hit the area with 20 mph winds and there was a thunderstorm at the time of the crash.

The Sudanese ambassador to Washington called the weather "very bad" and said the runway had been drenched.

"There was a lot of water on the runway and they still tried to land," Ambassador John Ukec Lueth Ukec said.

The head of Sudanese police, Mohammad Najib, said bad weather "caused the plane to crash-land, split into two and catch fire."