Scheduled Revenue Flight

While on a flight from Srinagar to Jammu, the airplane was hijacked by two members of the Jammu and Kashmir National Liberation Front (NLF). After being diverted to Lahore Airport, the aircraft stand on this airport for three days before all 32 occupants were released. The aircraft was then set afire and destroyed.

Following an uneventful flight from Chigorodó, the pilot started the descent to Medellín-Enrique Olaya Herrera Airport. Five minutes ETA, the twin engine airplane struck the slope of Mt San Félix located few km from the airport. The aircraft was destroyed and all 11 occupants were killed.

Seven minutes after its takeoff from Mérida-Alberto Carnevalli Airport, while climbing, the airplane struck trees and crashed in a wooded area located on Mt Paramo Los Conejos, about 17 km north of the airfield. 13 occupants were killed, among them a crew member, while 34 other occupants were injured.

Shortly after takeoff from Gangneung to Seoul, a man came into the cockpit and hijacked the airplane, asking the crew to divert to North Korea. Approaching the border, the crew reduced his altitude in an attempt to land on a beach when the hijacker unpin a grenade that exploded in the cockpit. The hijacker and the copilot were killed. Injured, the captain elected to land on a beach when the aircraft crash landed and came to rest. 16 occupants were injured and 42 others were inhurt. The aircraft was damaged beyond repair.

On the leg from Karaganda to Rostov-on-Don of a flight from Almaty to Simferopol when probably the autopilot system failed while the aircraft was flying at a height of 7,800 metres by night. The aircraft banked to the left, entered a dive and was recovered by the crew at a height of some 5,000 metres. The crew managed to land safely at Rostov-on-Don, but the aircraft suffered structural damage during the dive with up to 3.5 g forces, and was damaged beyond repair. There were no casualties. SOC 29sep71 as worn out.

In the afternoon, the airplane departed Paris on flight LZ130 to Sofia, carrying 39 passengers and a crew of eight. While cruising at its assigned altitude vertical to Luxeuil VOR, the captain requested to ATC the permission to divert to Zurich-Kloten Airport. The reason for this rerouting was unknown. The crew was cleared to change his route and continued over south of West Germany before starting a descent to Zurich. The approach to runway 16 at Zurich-Kloten was initiated in poor weather conditions with fog reducing the horizontal visibility to 600 meters and the vertical visibility to 60 meters. On final, the left main gear and the left wing tip struck the ground. The airplane gain a little height then struck the ground, lost its four engines and crashed in flames about 700 meters short of runway threshold, slightly out from the approach path. The aircraft was totally destroyed by impact forces and a post crash fire and only two occupants survived the accident, the captain and a boy aged 12. All 45 other occupants were killed. The occupants were respectively 14 West German, 12 Bulgarian (among them 8 crew members), 9 French, 4 Syrians, 2 Lebanese, one Brazilian, one Dutch, one Argentinian, one Austrian, one Finnish and one British.

On approach to Killeen Airport, the crew encountered marginale weather conditions with fog and ceiling. He was informed from ATC about a visibility below minima but the captain decided to continue the descent until the aircraft struck the ground short of runway and came to rest. The aircraft was damaged beyond repair and all 15 occupants were injured, nine of them seriously.

Flight MS844 was a scheduled international flight from Algiers to Cairo with an intermediate stop at Tripoli. Departure on the outbound flight Cairo - Tripoli - Algiers had been delayed 29 hours due to adverse weather conditions along the route. At Algiers, following testing of the systems, the fire warning light of Zone I in n° 3 engine stayed "ON". Local personnel, who were not familiar with Comet aircraft, attempted to rectify the discrepancy and this caused a further delay of nearly 2 1/2 hours. The light eventually extinguished and the pilot-in-command, who had been considering cancellation of the flight and returning to Cairo without passengers, then decided to proceed with the service. There was no evidence that the crew had asked for, or received, a weather forecast before departing Algiers for Tripoli; however, it is possible that a verbal forecast was obtained. The QNH at Algiers was 1011 mb. As the aircraft entered the Tripoli Control Area, the crew was provided with a weather report which included a horizontal visibility of 1000 meters due to sand haze. This was below the minimum authorized by the airline; however, the vertical visibility was unlimited. The pilot-in-command checked Benina weather and then decided to attempt a landing at Tripoli wfth Malta as the alternative: he stated that he had 3 hours 50 minutes endurance. Both Tripoli Control and Tripoli Tower gave him a QNH of 1008 mb, additionally Tripoli Control gave an opinion that visibility was better than 1 000 m, and Tripoli Tower gave an opinion that he could see "3 kilometres". The airport's VOR was not available as it required calibration; the only ground aid available was the ADF facility. Coming from Algiers, the approach over the beacon located 0.6 NM north of Runway 18, the runway in use, involved joining the holding pattern in the opposite direction to the circuit so that a tear drop turn was necessary to re-approach the beacon on the outbound leg on an ADF procedure turn. Shortly after passing the beacon for the first time, the pilot-in-command reported at 3 000 ft. The last message received was when the aircraft was passing the beacon outbound for an ADF approach procedure turn. The altitude was not stated subsequent to entering the holding pattern.The flight path to Runway 18 crossed an expanse of sand dunes 160 ft AMSL rising steeply to 425 ft AMSL and then falling te the runway threshold elevation of 240 ft. The aircraft struck sand dunes at an elevation of 395 ft approximately 7 km before the threshold of the runway. The accident occurred at 01.25 hours GMT. The aircraft was destroyed and all 16 occupants were killed.

The takeoff from Leningrad-Shosseynaya Airport was performed in low clouds and snow falls. After liftoff at a speed of 250 km/h, the airplane climbed to a height of 30-50 meters when it adopted an excessive nose-up attitude and banked left and right. In a high angle of attack, it continued on a distance of 5,300 meters when it lost height, causing the base of the tail to struck the ground. Out of control, it crashed at a speed of 200 km/h in a snow covered field, rolled for about 210 meters and came to rest 290 meters to the right of the extended centerline. Five crew members and a policeman, Major by the Interior Ministry of the Republic of Armenia were killed while 26 other occupants were injured, some of them seriously. 54 other occupants escaped uninjured. The aircraft was destroyed.

Ground looped on landing and was damaged beyond repair. No casualties.