physics

Sudan Airways Flight 139

Sudan Airways Flight 139 is a physics topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Sudan Airways Flight 139 rather than just read about it. In short: 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.

Key takeaways

Sudan Airways Flight 139 belongs to physics; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Sudan Airways Flight 139 to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Sudan Airways Flight 139 from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

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.

Aircraft and crew The aircraft involved in the accident was a Boeing 737-2J8C, registered ST-AFK. Powered by two Pratt & Whitney JT8D-7 engines, it was delivered new to Sudan Airways in 1975. At the time of the accident, the aircraft was almost 28 years old. The pilots involved were Captain Awad Jaber, First Officer Amir al-Nujumi, and Second Officer Walid Khair.

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.

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."

See also Aviation accidents and incidents Sudan Airways Flight 109

References

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Sudan Airways Flight 139

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Sudan Airways Flight 139 claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In physics, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Sudan Airways Flight 139 before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Sudan Airways Flight 139 ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Sudan Airways Flight 139

In research: Sudan Airways Flight 139 appears in physics research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Sudan Airways Flight 139 in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Sudan Airways Flight 139 is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 2000s disasters in Sudan, 2003 disasters in Africa, 2003 in Sudan, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Sudan Airways Flight 139 outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Sudan Airways Flight 139 in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Sudan Airways Flight 139 means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Sudan Airways Flight 139 out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Sudan Airways Flight 139 in simple terms?

Why does Sudan Airways Flight 139 matter?

Because it connects several physics ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Sudan Airways Flight 139?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Sudan Airways Flight 139.