Follow Up on Sharjah Airplane Crash

UNCLAS ABU DHABI 000348 SIPDIS DEPT FOR OPS, CA/OCS/ASC, DS, DSS, DS/IP/ITA, NEA/ARP, DS/IP, DS/IP/NEA, SES-O/DS/IP/CC, DSERCC E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: ASEC CASC EAIR PTER AEMR TC SUBJECT: Follow Up on Sharjah Airplane Crash Ref: Dubai 613 ¶1. On February 10 at approximately 1140 local time, a Kish Airlines Fokker-50 aircraft crashed on its approach to Sharjah International Airport, two miles before touchdown (Reftel). ConGen has received a copy of the passenger manifest and confirmed that no Americans were on board. Of the 39 passengers listed on the manifest, which includes neither the infant nor the 6 crew members, approximately one third were Iranian, one third Indian, and the rest from Africa, the Middle East, and Asia. Ahmed Bukalla, Director of Operations at Sharjah Civil Aviation, confirmed to PolEconoff on February 11 that 43 of the 46 people on board had died, while 3 remained in critical condition. ¶2. According to local media, the plane had been coming from Iran's Kish Island, making a standard low-cost "visa run" for laborers and workers in Dubai needing to renew their UAE visas. The tragedy of so many people losing their lives for such a mundane reason appears to have hit home with Dubai's leadership, because Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid (MBR),Dubai's de fact ruler, issued an order Feb 10, effective immediately, instructing Dub immigration officials to cease requiring foreigners to travel abroad order to change their work permit status. A contact in MBR's Protoc Department confirmed to us Feb. 11 that the new procedure was already effect, and said it was the Government of Dubai's understanding that a similar edict at the UAE federal level would be forthcoming shortly ¶3. PolEconoff and FSNI visited the crash site the afternoon of Feb. 10. The aircraft had crashed in an undeveloped strip of desert between two rows of houses, hitting no structures, vehicles, o people on the ground. The tail-end was the only part of the plane even partially intact, with the front-end completely destroyed. No cause has yet been determined for the crash, but judging from the condition of the tail, the plane may have been in a poor state of repair: some parts of the tail, now painted over, appeared to have been badly corroded prior to the paint job. WAHBA