A plane carrying refugees fleeing the Sudanese conflict has overran the runway during its landing in Juba, South Sudan. With the conflict in Sudan ramping up, more incidents like this are bound to happen due to the chaos that has ensued.

On April 28, a Boeing 727-200 carrying around 300 passengers overran the runway in Juba

According to Daniel Garang Deng, a journalist in Juba South Sudan, the aircraft involved in the incident was carrying "...over 300 passengers..." and originated in Paloich Airport (HGI). The aircraft overran at the end of runway 13 just after the runway's displaced threshold and landing lights on the runway 31 end of Juba International Airport (JUB).

The aircraft involved in the incident, registered EY-627, is a 727-200 freighter (727-200F) aircraft registered in Tajikistan. According to the previously mentioned journalist Daniel Garang Deng, the aircraft is operated by Safe Air and was chartered by a member of the Sudanese Parliament and businessman Bibi Ali along with his wife.

Due to the overrun, a Fly Dubai Boeing 737 MAX 8 coming from Dubai (DXB) was forced to divert to Entebbe Int'l Airport (EBB) in the neighboring country of Uganda.

Many on social media have expressed awe and disbelief in regards to the sheer amount of people that were able to fit onto the overran aircraft. The Boeing 727-200 is a short to medium-haul aircraft that was originally designed to hold a maximum of around 150 passengers. This, however, is only in the normal passenger configuration with seats onboard. Take out the seats and you have the 727-200's cargo variant (727-200F). Cargo variants of aircraft have their seats stripped out and windows blocked (built over with material). By doing this, the inside of a cargo aircraft has the most amount of space available to transport cargo on pallets.

These cargo pallets are secured tightly in place via ropes and straps. For humanitarian operations (such as airlifting refugees), cargo aircraft is the perfect tool. They have more space and thus can fit more passengers compared to the passenger variants of planes. The very same straps and ropes used to keep cargo pallets secured inflight are what enabled 300 passengers to fit into an aircraft meant to carry 150. During the flight, all of the 727's passengers would have held onto the ropes and straps as makeshift seatbelts.

Transporting more people than an aircraft is meant to carry has been done numerous times before

When a cargo or passenger aircraft carries more passengers than it is meant to carry, it is usually transporting refugees for humanitarian causes. The most famous example of this was during Operation Solomon in May 1991, when an El Al Israel Airlines Boeing 747-200 (registered 4X-AXD) airlifted 1,088 Ethiopian Jews from Addis Ababa to Tel Aviv.

Sudan Closes Its Airspace

Shortly after the outbreak of hostilities between the nation's military and para-military forces on April 15, the Sudanese Civil Aviation Authority (SCAA) promptly made the decision to close its countries' airspace to all civilian aircraft. Sudan is quite a large country, roughly one-fourth the size of the United States.

So when the airspace above the nation was closed, it became quite an issue for airlines and their routes transiting over Sudanese airspace. Most of the airlines affected were those operating north-to-south African routes such as Egypt Air and their Cairo (CAI) to Johannesburg (JNB)  route. Due to Egypt Air having to re-route around the closed Sudanese airspace, the flight time has increased by around 30 minutes each way. This is just one of numerous examples of the new precautions airlines have to take. 

The heavy fighting between Sudan's RSF and military forces inside the nation's capital of Khartoum has also severely damaged or destroyed multiple aircraft in the capital city's airport including those owned by airlines such as SAUDIA and SkyUp Airlines. 

For more information about the situation at Khartoum Airport, you can click here.