Sudan leader leaves plane

Press, Volume CXI, Issue 32666, 23 July 1971, Page 1

Sudan leader leaves plane

(N.Z.P.A.-Reuter —Copyriphtj

LONDON, July 22.

A British Overseas Airways Corporation plane carrying the new Sudanese leader, Babikr El Nur, home to power, was forced to make an unscheduled stop in Benghazi, Libya, today, and he disembarked.

Sudan’s Ambassador in London, Sayed Abdin Ismail, described the event as very strange, and said he could offer no explanation. The 8.0.A.C. VC-10, which was due to go on to Khartoum, the capital of Sudan, turned back in Libya and arrived in London at 8 ‘a.m. GMT. The captain, Roy Bowyer, aged 45, immediately reported to company officials. The 105 passengers, many of whom had booked to go as far as Dar-es-Salaam, left the plane in London and alternative travelling arrangements were being made for them.

Lieutenant-Colonel El-Nur, aged 37, and at least one associate, Major Mohamed Mahgoub, left the plane in Benghazi after it landed at the insistence of Libyan authorities. Colonel El-Nur was re-

turning home to take command of the country after the swift coup by the army officers which brought him to power last Monday. He had been in London for several weeks for treatment of a kidney complaint. It was publicly announced yesterday that he would be on the regular 8.0.A.C. flight to Khartoum.

Meanwhile, several Iraqi leaders on their way to Khartoum to meet the new Sudanese regime were killed in a plane crash, it was officially announced here. The announcement did not say where the crash occurred, but Cairo reports said a special Iraqi plane, carrying the delegation, exploded in mid-air three miles north of Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. Sudanese troops have surrounded the embassies of the United Arqb Republic, Libya and Syria in Khartoum,