Red Cross pilot dies when relief plane is attacked

The co-pilot of a Red Cross plane flying over southern Sudan was killed today when it came under attack.

The nine-seater King Air twin-engine turboprop aircraft was hit twice and a cockpit explosion killed a 26-year-old Dane.

The second explosion damaged the right wing. The pilot, who was not injured, managed to land the damaged plane at Lokichokio in northwestern Kenya.

The aircraft, that was clearly marked with Red Cross insignia and carried no passengers, had been a scheduled weekly flight from Lokichokio, the base of most relief operations for southern Sudan, to Sudan’s capital, Khartoum.

It had received permission from the government of Sudan to make the flight.

Sudanese rebels and government forces have been fighting a civil war in southern Sudan since 1983.

Red Cross spokesman Michael Kleiner said the plane had dropped from its normal cruising height because of air pressure problems and was flying at 8,500 ft when it was hit.

At that height it would have put it in range of anti-aircraft guns. When the plane was hit, it was flying over government-held territory.