The pilot of a cargo plane that was losing altitude bravely steered his aircraft away from a built-up area and crashed in an open space outside Khartoum, Sudan's director of civil aviation said Thursday. The pilot and his six fellow crewmen were killed, the director, Abou Bakr Jaafar, said. "This was a courageous move." Jaafar told The Associated Press at the scene where the Sudanese plane crashed east of the Nile River at about 8 a.m. local time (0600 GMT). "He changed his flight to move the plane out of the inhabited area." The houses of Ad Babkir district stand about half a mile (800 meters) from the crash site. Jaafar said the crew of the Ilyushin plane comprised six Russians and one Sudanese. When reporters arrived at the scene, their bodies had not yet been removed and six were extremely badly burned. "We don't know the exact reason for the crash," Jaafar said, adding that it was under investigation. The weather was fine Thursday morning with perfect visibility.
