1996 Charkhi Dadri mid-air collision

Saudi Arabian Airlines Flight 763
Kazakhstan Airlines Flight 1907
Accident summary
Date 12 November 1996
Type Mid-air collision, Kazakhstan Airlines: Pilot error
Site Charkhi Dadri, Haryana, India
Total fatalities 349
Total survivors 0 (4 initially)
First aircraft
Type Boeing 747-168B
Operator Saudi Arabian Airlines
Tail number HZ-AIH
Flight origin Indira Gandhi Int'l Airport
Destination Dhahran International Airport
Passengers 289
Crew 23
Survivors 0
Second aircraft
Type Ilyushin Il-76
Operator Kazakhstan Airlines
Tail number UN-76435
Flight origin Shymkent Int'l Airport
Destination Indira Gandhi Int'l Airport
Passengers 27
Crew 10
Survivors 0 (4 initially)

The 1996 Charkhi Dadri mid-air collision occurred on 12 November 1996 when Saudi Arabian Airlines Flight 763 (SVA 763), a Boeing 747-168B en route from New Delhi, India, to Dhahran, Saudi Arabia, collided in mid-air with Kazakhstan Airlines Flight 1907 (KZK 1907), an Ilyushin Il-76 en route from Shymkent, Kazakhstan to New Delhi, over the village of Charkhi Dadri, Haryana, India. All 349 people on board both flights were killed, making it the deadliest mid-air collision in history.

Contents

History and cause

Flight SVA 763 departed Delhi at 6:32 PM local time. Flight KZK 1907 was, at the same time, descending to land at Delhi. Both flights were controlled by approach controller VK Dutta. The crew of flight 763 consisted of captain Khalid Al Shoubaili, first officer Nazir Khan, and flight engineer Evris. On Flight KZK 1907, Gennadi Cherepanov served as the pilot and Yegor Repp served as the radio operator.[1]

Flight KZK 1907 was cleared to descend to 15,000 feet (4,600 m) when 74 miles (119 km) from the airport while Flight SVA 763, traveling on the same airway as Flight KZK 1907 but in the opposite direction, was cleared to climb to 14,000 feet (4,300 m). About eight minutes later, around 6:40 PM, Flight KZK 1907 reported having reached its assigned altitude of 15,000 feet (4,600 m) but it was actually lower, at 14,500 feet (4,400 m), and still descending.[2] At this time, Dutta advised the flight, "Identified traffic 12 o'clock, reciprocal Saudia Boeing 747, 10 miles (16 km). Report in sight."

When the controller called Flight KZK 1907 again, he received no reply. He warned of the other flight's distance, but it was too late—the two aircraft had crashed almost head-on. The tail of KZK 1907 sliced through the left wing of SVA 763. Flight SVA 763 had lost its horizontal stabilizer in its left wing and as a result, went into spiral motion towards the ground resulting in an in-flight structural failure; at almost 705 miles per hour the aircraft hit the ground. The fuselage of Flight KZK 1907 remained structurally intact until it crashed in a field.[3] Rescuers discovered four critically injured passengers but all died soon afterward[4]. In the end, all 312 people on board Flight SVA 763 and all 37 people on Flight KZK 1907 perished.

Capt. Timothy J. Place, a pilot for the United States Air Force, was the sole eyewitness to the event. He was making an initial approach in a Lockheed C-141B Starlifter when he saw "the cloud suddenly flashes into bright red"[3].

Passengers and crews

Saudi Arabian Airlines Flight 763

Many of the passengers on the Saudi flight consisted of Indians traveling to jobs in Saudi Arabia and others going home. A 14 November article from The New York Times stated that 215 Indians who boarded the flight worked in Saudi Arabia. Many of the Indians worked or planned to work in blue collar jobs[5] as house maids, drivers, and cooks.[6]

According to a 13 November 1996 The New York Times article, the passenger manifest included 17 people of other nationalities, including nine Nepalis, three Pakistanis, two Americans, one Bangladeshi, one Briton, and one Saudi.[7]

A 14 November article from The New York Times stated that 40 Nepalis and 3 Americans boarded the Saudi flight.[6]

12 of the crew members, including 5 anti-terrorism men, consisted of Saudis.[8]

Kazakhstan Airlines Flight 1907

A Kyrgyzstan company chartered the flight, and the passenger manifest mostly included ethnic Russian Kyrgyz citizens planning to go shopping in India.[1][6][7]

Thirteen Kyrgyz traders boarded the flight.[8]

Crash investigation and report

The crash was investigated by the Lahoti Commission, headed by then-Delhi High Court judge Ramesh Chandra Lahoti. Depositions were taken from the Air Traffic Controllers Guild and the two airlines. The flight data recorders were decoded by Kazakh Airlines and Saudia under supervision of air crash investigators in Moscow and Farnborough, Hampshire, England, respectively.[3]

The commission determined that the accident had been the fault of the Kazakh Il-76 commander, who (according to FDR evidence) had descended from the assigned altitude of 15,000 feet (4,600 m) to 14,500 feet (4,400 m) and subsequently 14,000 feet (4,300 m) and even below that. The report ascribed the cause of this serious breach in operating procedure to the lack of English language skills on the part of the Kazakh aircraft pilots; they were relying entirely on their radio operator for communications with the ATC.[9] Kazakh officials stated that the aircraft had descended while their pilots were fighting turbulence inside a bank of cumulus clouds. Also, a few seconds from impact, the Kazakh plane climbed slightly and the two planes collided. If they had not climbed slightly, it is likely that they would have passed under the Saudi plane.This was due to the fact that only then did the radio operator of Kazhak 1907 remembered that he had not conveyed to the pilots that they had to fly at 15000ft.He asked the pilot to do so and the captain gave orders for full throttle and the plane climbed, only to hit the oncoming Saudi plane.The recorder of the Saudi plane revealed the pilots reciting the prayer that they had to, according to Islam Law, when they face death. The counsel for the ATC Guild denied the presence of turbulence, quoting meteorological reports, but did state that the collision occurred inside a cloud.[9] This was substantiated by the affidavit of Capt. Place, who was the commander of the aforementioned Lockheed C-141B Starlifter he was flying into New Delhi at the time of the crash.[3] The members of his crew would file similar affidavits.[10] The ultimate cause was held to be the failure of the Kazakh pilot to follow ATC instructions, whether due to cloud turbulence or due to communication problems.

Indira Gandhi International Airport did not have secondary surveillance radar, which produces exact readings of aircraft altitudes; instead the airport had outdated primary radar, which produced approximate readings. In addition, the civilian airspace around New Delhi had one corridor for departures and arrivals. Most areas separate departures and arrivals into separate corridors. The airspace had one civilian corridor because much of the airspace was taken by the Indian Air Force.[3] Due to the crash, the air-crash investigation report recommended changes to air-traffic procedures and infrastructure in New Delhi's air-space: Separation of in-bound and out-bound aircraft through the creation of 'air corridors', installation of a secondary air-traffic control radar for aircraft altitude data, mandatory collision avoidance equipment on commercial aircraft operating in Indian airspace and reduction of the airspace over New Delhi which was formerly under exclusive control of the Indian Air Force.

The Civil Aviation Authorities in India made it mandatory for all aircraft flying in and out of India to be equipped with an ACAS (Airborne Collision Avoidance System). This was the first time in the world that ACAS was mandatory.

Disaster in popular media

See also


References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 "One Jet in Crash Over India Ruled Off Course," The New York Times
  2. ↑ Accident description for Kazakhstan Airlines Flight 1907 at the Aviation Safety Network
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 3.5 "Head On – AirCrash" (documentary TV show) Miditech. Accessed 2009-09-10. Archived 2009-09-12.
  4. ↑ MID-AIR, Flight Safety Australia, November–December 2006 issue – PDF 268 KB. Accessed 2009-09-10. Archived 2009-09-12.
  5. ↑ "Indian law may restrain size of crash claims.," Business Insurance
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 "Indian Officials Gather Evidence on Midair Collision," The New York Times
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 "Two Airliners Collide in Midair, Killing All 351 Aboard in India," The New York Times
  8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 "Pilot error focus of India collision investigation," CNN
  9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 Communication gap caused Charkhi Dadri mishap, Rediff; retrieved 4 July 2006
  10. ↑ Charkhi Dadri collision occurred in "heavy clouds": US pilot, Rediff; retrieved 4 July 2006
  11. ↑ "Haryana India 1996 Plane Crash, Head on Collision | Mayday | National Geographic Channel |". Archived from the original on 2009-05-11. http://www.webcitation.org/5ghhc04v0. Retrieved 2009-04-17. 

External links

External images
Pre-Crash photos ot the two airliners at Airliners.net