Mumbai

Following a technical maintenance, a test flight was scheduled with two engineers and two pilots. The twin engine airplane departed Mumbai-Juhu Airport and the crew completed several manoeuvre over the city before returning. On approach in heavy rain falls, the aircraft went out of control and crashed at the bottom of a building under construction located in the Ghatkopar West district, some 3 km east from Mumbai Intl Airport, bursting into flames. The aircraft was destroyed by impact forces and a post crash fire and all four occupants were killed. Three people on the ground were also injured.

The undercarriage retracted for unknown reasons while the aircraft was taxiing at Bombay Airport. There were no injuries but the aircraft was written off.

While approaching Bombay Airport from the southeast by night, the crew encountered technical problems when the airplane struck the slope of Mt Kisoli located 30 km southeast from Bombay Airport. SAR operations were hampered by lack of visibility and heavy rain falls. The wreckage was found few hours later and all 45 occupants were killed.

Less than five minutes after a night takeoff from Bombay-Santa Cruz Airport, while climbing, the aircraft entered a nose-down attitude then plunged into the earth and crashed in a huge explosion some 32 km north of the airport. The aircraft disintegrated on impact and all 29 occupants were killed as well as one person on the ground. Few houses were damaged and few other people were injured.

The aircraft was on a non-scheduled flight from Bangkok to Base1 with scheduled stops at Colombo, Bombay and Cairo. The aircraft departed Bombay for Cairo on 19 April at 1312 hours GMT, with 11 hours and 10 minutes of fuel endurance and an estimated flight time for Cairo of 9 hours. According to the flight plan time, it was due to arrive in Cairo at 2212 hours. The alternate airport for the above sector was given as Beirut. At 2215 hours the aircraft was heard calling Nicosia but, due to distance and height, two-way communication with Nicosia on VHF could not be established until 2234 hours. In the meantime a message was received from Beirut advising Nicosia that the aircraft had entered the Nicosia FIR and had reported over position Red 18A at 2229 hours. From the Area Control radiotelephony tape recording, it is evident that the actual weather conditions at Nicosia at 2145 hours and 2245 h~.:rs were passed to the aircraft at 2238 hours and 2254 hours respectively. Details of the latter actual weather were passed again to the aircraft at 2300 hours by Approach Control. The aircraft came over the field at 2306 hours and was cleared for a right- hand circuit. At 2310 hours, when over the threshold of runway 32, the aircraft was slightly high and the captain decided to overshoot. He informed the tower and was cleared for a left-hand circuit. He further informed the tower that he would carry out a low circuit. The aircraft was momentarily seen by the controller during its final approach and the glare of its landing lights was visible through the low cloud when it made a pass over the runway in use and disappeared from view over the upwind end of the runway in the low cloud to the north-west. On his second attempt to land and while executing a low circuit, the aircraft collided with the ground at 0113LT, 3,5 km short of runway threshold. A crew member and three passengers were seriously injured while 126 other occupants were killed. The aircraft was totally destroyed by impact forces and a post crash fire.

The crew was completing a local training flight at Bombay-Santa Cruz Airport. On final approach, while at an altitude of 800 feet, the crew voluntarily shut down an engine to simulate a failure when the airplane struck a hill and crashed. All four crew members were killed.

Flight 869 was a scheduled international flight from Tokyo, Japan to Cairo, United Arab Republic via Hong Kong, Bangkok, Bombay and Bahrain. A crew change was effected at Bangkok. Based on the tape recordings of messages exchanged between the aircraft and Santa Cruz approach and radar control, the flight was reconstructed. It was uneventful until 2016 hours GMT when it reported arriving over the Santa Cruz VOR at 7 000 ft. It was cleared to descend to 4 000 ft over the VOR and was requested to report what type of approach would be carried out for landing on runway 09. The aircraft reported it would follow the ILS back beam procedure. It was advised by Santa Cruz approach that the back beam of the ILS was not flyable but that it could home on the 270° radial of the VOR. The aircraft agreed to do a VOR letdown for runway 09, and shortly thereafter reported it was leaving 7 000 ft outbound over the sea on the 272° radial of the VOR. At 2018 Santa Cruz radar, which was monitoring the flight, warned it that if it flew more than 6 or 7 miles west of the field it would run into very heavy turbulence. Shortly thereafter the flight requested permission to make a left-hand procedure turn instead of the normal right-hand turn. This was granted. At 2019 the flight commenced the procedure turn inbound. Santa Cruz radar advised the flight that it was then 6 miles west-northwest of the field. Flight 869 acknowledged this message and was not heard from again. During the turn in severe turbulence and heavy rain the pilot lost control of the aircraft. It was found later on that the air- craft had crashed into the sea 9 NM west of Madh Island at approximately 2020 hours.

The crew was preparing to land at Bombay-Santa Cruz Airport runway 27 and was cleared to descend to 4,000 feet. After several errors, the pilot-in-command started the descent prematurely and while at an altitude of 3,600 feet, the airplane struck the slope of Mt Davandyachi (1,080 m high) located about eight km north of Junnar. The aircraft disintegrated on impact and all 94 occupants were killed. At the time of the accident, the airplane was off course by 9 km and its altitude was too low.

Flight 106 departed from HAL Airport, Bangalore for Bombay at 1555LT on a scheduled domestic flight with 6 crew and 30 passengers on board. After a normal takeoff and climb, the aircraft was cruising at flight level 85 with the engines operating at 29" manifold pressure and 2050 rpm. BMEP gauges were not fitted. At 16:30 hours the flight reported its position 100 miles out from Bangalore and estimated Bombay FIR boundary at 17:00. The flight was uneventful up to about 16:50 when the pilot heard a loud "thud" which he believed to be an engine misfiring. This was followed by the aircraft losing height rapidly. The auto pilot was disengaged and the aircraft was trimmed for manual flight. In order to maintain height the pilot applied climb power, and then METO power by moving the pitch and throttle controls forward, and although the manifold pressure increased first to 35" and then to 40", the engine speed remained constant at 2050 rpm and the aircraft continued to lose height at a descent rate of 1500 feet per minute. Cylinder head temperatures were not apparently noted. The pilot eventually made a wheels-up landing in a ploughed field at an elevation of 1900 feet. All 36 occupants were evacuated safely while the aircraft was damaged beyond repair.

While cruising by night on a flight from Hyderabad to Bombay, the airplane crashed in unknown circumstances in the region of Pune, killing all four crew members.