Chennai

The crew departed Chennai NAS at 1730LT on a maritime patrol flight along the Tamil Nadu coast and over the Palk Bay. The last radio contact was established at 2100LT and the last radar contact was observed at 2123LT while the aircraft was cruising at an altitude of 9,000 feet some 176 km offshore. SAR operations were initiated and some debris were found the following morning. All three occupants, two pilots and one observer, were killed. On July 10, the wreckage was found at a depth of 995 metres some 30 km off Pichavaram.

The crew was completing a cargo flight from Bombay to Madras with an intermediate stop in Bangalore. On final approach to Madras Airport, the aircraft nosed down and landed nose first. Upon impact, the nose gear collapsed and the aircraft slid on its nose for few dozen metres before coming to rest. A fire erupted but was quickly extinguished. Both pilots escaped uninjured while the aircraft was damaged beyond repair.

The aircraft was completing a cargo flight from Paris to Chennai with intermediate stops in Karachi and Bangalore, carrying five crew members and a load of various goods including three cars, 20 tons of cigarettes, chemicals and clothing for a total weight of 66 tons. The aircraft was cleared for a runway 07 ILS approach, but the approach was abandoned due to indications that the undercarriage was not down and locked. The flight crew concluded that all gear were down and locked despite a red GEAR light on the forward instrument panel. The crew had failed to recognize that the green GEAR DOWN light for the nose gear was not illuminated and assumed that the red GEAR light on the forward instrument panel was a false indication. The gear was recycled, but an alternate extension was not attempted. The pilot positioned the airplane for another approach. The aircraft touched down with the nose gear retracted. The nose struck the runway. The plane skidded and came to rest at 7000 feet down the runway (which is 13050 feet long). As the pilot informed the ATC of the mishap, he noticed smoke in the cockpit. Even as the smoke was being extinguished, flames erupted in the front portion of the aircraft. One of the crewmembers came down through a rope ladder from the cockpit, the other four were brought down through the rear of the aircraft using the fire engine step ladders. The fire services were not able to extinguish the fire and the plane burned out completely.

Indian Airlines Airbus A-300 aircraft VT-EDV was operating scheduled flight IC-440 (Madras - Hyderabad sector) on 15.11.1993. There were a total of 262 persons were on board the aircraft including 247+3 passengers and 12 crew members. The aircraft could not land at Hyderabad due to low visibility and carried out a missed approach. After the missed approach, the aircraft reported "Flap Problem" and was holding overhead at Hyderabad during which the flight crew enquired visibility at nearby Air Force airfields which was also low. The aircraft then diverted to Madras. Due to flaps problem, the crew had to maintain low speed and low altitude as a result of which it experienced fuel shortage and sought permission from Madras control for landing at Tirupati. However, the aircraft could not reach even Tirupati airport and executed forced landing in an open paddy field about 14 nautical miles from Tirupati airport. The aircraft dragged on the soft paddy field before coming to final stop. There was no fire. Passenger evacuation was carried out by means of escape slides. All the persons on board escaped unhurt except four who received minor injuries.

The aircraft took-off from Bangalore at 0645 hrs IST. The flight from Bangalore to Madras was uneventful. The aircraft was cleared to land by Madras Control Tower at 0728 hrs IST. The aircraft touched down on the belly at a distance of 2,140 feet from the beginning of runway 07. The aircraft slided on its belly for approximately 1,500 feet before finally coming to rest on the runway slightly to the right side of the centre line. The port wing tip and the port engine propeller blades had touched the runway just before it came to stop. The rear passenger door was opened normally by the airhostess and the passengers were evacuated from the rear door. There was slight smoke near the bottom centre of the fuselage but there was no fire. There was no injury to any person on board. The aircraft was written off.

During taxiing for takeoff, the commander gave controls to copilot for takeoff. During takeoff roll, the commander and the copilot sighted a large bird towards the right hand side and the commander told the copilot to continue with takeoff. The copilot reportedly saw another large bird on the runway centreline when the aircraft speed was around 150 knots. The copilot rotated the aircraft and when the aircraft attained 5 to 8° nose up attitude, a loud noise was heard from the right side followed by severe vibration. The commande took over the controls from the copilot at this stage and initiated action to abort the takeoff. Reverse thrust and wheel brakes were applied but the aircraft could not be stopped on the runway and rolled over to kutcha ground. There was no fire but the aircraft was damaged beyond repair. All 196 occupants were evacuated, among them 14 were slightly injured.

The flight for 35 minutes after takeoff from Trivandrum Airport was normal and uneventful. After receiving clearance from Madras, the aircraft commenced descent from a cruising altitude of 27,000 feet. Soon thereafter, a loud explosion was heard from the forward lavatory area. The cockpit and front portion of cabin were filled with smoke and cabin lights went off. There was completed instrument and electrical failure. The aircraft with undercarriage down made a flapless approach and touched down at a distance of 2,500 feet beyond threshold of runway 25 at Madras Airport. The aircraft overshot the runway, ploughing through kutcha grassy field and nullah. After the accident came to a halt, the passengers evacuated through forward and rear doors. The aircraft was destroyed due to inflight explosion and subsequent post crash overrun. The fire started on starboard side after the aircraft came to a halt and damaged the starboard wing. 14 occupants were injured.

Report from the crew: was PIC of AN-12 , BL740 on that fateful day of 7 January 1974. My cojo was Baldy, Nav Ambre and Prasad Rao (AEB examiner) & among passengers were Wingco "Doc Lu" of AEB, one F/L Raghavan of Logs & some more passengers. We were taking off from Chennai-Meenambhakam Airport in the morning. After waiting for takeoff clearance which got delayed due some R/T problem, we finally started rolling. All parameters were normal. Ambre started calling speed. As he called out speed 160, I was changing over from nose steer to control column. At that very moment, the aircraft swung viciously to the right and left, the R/W at 45° angle. It took me 2 or 3 seconds to realize that its an engine failure. I immediately chopped all 4 throttles back and saw a really big ditch right ahead runway 07 before I could take any other action, the aircraft had come to a halt. With the impact, it broke in two. Main entrance door had flung open, there was no fire or casualty. I took my time to come out after ensuring all switches off. After we all had come out, we saw Ambre trying to come out from copilots side window and fell on the ground and broke his arm. Our Gunner W/O Nagarajan was the other crew member who was injured but safe. Co I was headed by Wingco "Chotu" Desores and Chotu S/L Rajgopalan. During the proceedings, they estimated that even after chopping throttles, the aircraft wouldn't have taken more than 5 seconds before crashing. Some passengers had gone to nearby Army M I room along with crew to get first aid treatment. Ultimately, I was blamed for "Not using sufficient brake and for carrying unauthorized passengers." This incident brought an end to my AN-12 flying. As I understood later that S/L (later Air Marshal) Victor Puri, then my Flt Cdr in 44 Sqn tried to simulate N°4 engine auto feather (which was the cause of accident) with an experienced crew and could not control the aircraft as it was going to leave the runway and had to open power to regain control. Due to anti clockwise rotation of propeller blades, the n°4 engine is the most critical engine in an Antonov AN-12.
Source: http://www.bharat-rakshak.com/IAF/Database/Aircraft/BL-740

On final approach to New Delhi-Palam Airport by night, the crew encountered poor weather conditions. In below-minimum visibility, despite he was unable to locate the runway, the captain decided to continue the approach and passed below the glide. With the flaps down to 40°, the airplane struck power cables and crashed in flames near the district of Vasant Vihar, about 3 km east of the airport. Five crew members and 43 passengers were killed while 17 other occupants were injured.

During the landing at Ratmalana Airport, Ceylon, following a scheduled flight from Madras, India, the aircraft touched down about one third down the runway and swerved off to the left with its wheels in the 'up' position. The aircraft was substantially damaged. None of the 6 crew members or 36 passengers aboard was injured. The accident took dace at 0851 hours GMT (1421LT).