The Charkhi Dadri mid-air collision occurred on 12 November 1996 over the
village of Charkhi Dadri, to the west of New Delhi, India. The aircraft involved
were a Saudi Arabian Airlines Boeing 747-100B en route from Delhi to Dhahran,
Saudi Arabia, and a Kazakhstan Airlines Ilyushin Il-76 en route from Chimkent,
Kazakhstan, to Delhi. The crash killed all 349 people on board both planes,
making it the world's deadliest mid-air collision, the deadliest aviation
accident to occur in India, and the third-deadliest aircraft accident in the
history of aviation, behind only the Tenerife airport disaster and Japan
Airlines Flight 123. Collision
The Saudi Arabian Airlines Boeing 747-168B, registration HZ-AIH, was due
to operate the first leg of a scheduled international Delhi–Dhahran–Jeddah
passenger service as Flight 763 with 312 occupants on board; the Kazakhstan
Airlines Ilyushin Il-76TD, registration UN-76435, was on a charter service from
Chimkent to Delhi as KZA1907. SVA763 departed Delhi at 18:32 local time.
KZA1907 was, at the same time, descending to land at Delhi. Both
flights were controlled by approach controller VK Dutta. The crew of SVA763
consisted of Captain Khalid Al Shubaily, First Officer Nazir Khan, and Flight
Engineer Edris. On KZA1907, Gennadi Cherepanov served as the pilot and Egor
Repp served as the radio operator. KZA1907 was cleared to descend to 15,000
feet when it was 74 nautical miles from the beacon of the destination airport
while SVA763, travelling on the same airway as KZA1907 but in the opposite
direction, was cleared to climb to 14,000 feet. About eight minutes later,
around 18:40, KZA1907 reported having reached its assigned altitude of 15,000
feet but it was actually lower, at 14,500 feet, and still descending. At
this time, Dutta advised the flight, "Identified traffic 12 o'clock,
reciprocal Saudia Boeing 747, 10 nautical miles. Report in sight."
When the controller called KZA1907 again, he received no reply. He warned
of the other flight's distance, but it was too late. The two aircraft had
collided, the tail of KZA1907 cut through SVA763's left wing and
horizontal stabiliser. The crippled Boeing quickly lost control and went
into a rapidly descending spiral motion toward the ground with fire trailing
from the wing. The Boeing broke up in the air under the stresses before the
wreckage hit the ground at almost 1,135 km/h. The Ilyushin remained structurally
intact as it went in a steady but rapid and uncontrolled descent until it
crashed in a field. Rescuers discovered four critically injured passengers from
the Ilyushin, but they all died soon afterwards. Two passengers from the
Saudia flight survived the crash, still strapped to their seats, only to die of
internal injuries soon after. In the end, all 312 people on board SVA763 and
all 37 people on KZA1907 were killed. Captain 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 that "a
large cloud lit up with an orange glow". The collision took place about 100
kilometres west of Delhi. The wreckage of the Saudi aircraft crashed near Dhani
village, Bhiwani District, Haryana. The wreckage of the Kazakh aircraft hit the
ground near Birohar village, Rohtak District, Haryana. This was the first
mid-air collision between two commercial aircraft since the Dniprodzerzhynsk
mid-air collision in 1979; it was succeeded by the mid-air collision
between a Bashkirian Airlines Tupolev Tu-154M and a DHL Boeing 757 over
Germany in July 2002 and then by the mid-air collision between a Gol Boeing
737 and an ExcelAire Embraer Legacy over Amazonia in September 2006.
Passengers and crews = Saudi Arabian Airlines Flight 763=
The captain of the flight, aged 45, was a veteran pilot with more than 9,800
flying hours to his credit. An article published in The New York Times on 14
November 1996 stated that 215 Indians who boarded the flight worked in Saudi
Arabia; many of them worked or planned to work in blue collar jobs as house
maids, drivers, and cooks. The article also stated that 40 Nepalis and three
Americans boarded the Saudi flight. According to an article in the same
newspaper published a day earlier, the passenger manifest included 17 people of
other nationalities, including nine Nepalis, three Pakistanis, two
Americans, one Bangladeshi, one Briton, and one Saudi. Twelve of the crew
members, including five anti-terrorism officials, were Saudi citizens.
= Kazakhstan Airlines Flight 1907= The 44-year-old captain of Flight 1907
was also highly experienced, with more than 9,200 flight hours under his belt.
A company from Kyrgyzstan chartered the flight, and the passenger manifest
mostly included ethnic Russian Kyrgyz citizens planning to go shopping in
India. Thirteen Kyrgyz traders boarded the
flight. Investigation and final 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 Kazakhstan Airlines and Saudia under the supervision of air
crash investigators in Moscow and Farnborough, England, respectively. The
ultimate cause was held to be the failure of Kazakhstan Airlines Flight
1907's pilot to follow ATC instructions, whether due to cloud turbulence or due
to communication problems. The commission determined that the
accident had been the fault of the Kazakh Il-76 commander, who had
descended from the assigned altitude of 15,000 to 14,500 feet and subsequently
14,000 feet and even lower. 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. The radio operator did not have his
own flight instrumentation but had to look over the pilots' shoulders for a
reading. Kazakh officials stated that the aircraft had descended while their
pilots were fighting turbulence inside a bank of cumulus clouds.
Indian air controllers also complained that the Kazakh pilots sometimes
confused their calculations because they are accustomed to using metre altitudes
and kilometre distances, while most other countries use nautical miles and
feet. Just a few seconds from impact, the
Kazakh plane climbed slightly and the two planes collided. This was because
the radio operator of Kazakhstan 1907 discovered only then that they were not
at 15,000 feet and asked the pilot to climb. The captain gave orders for full
throttle, and the plane climbed, only to hit the oncoming Saudi plane. The tail
of the Kazakh plane clipped the left wing of the Saudi jet, severing both
parts from their respective planes. Had the Kazakh pilots not climbed slightly,
it is likely that they would have passed under the Saudi plane.
The recorder of the Saudi plane revealed the pilots recited the prayer that is
required, according to Islamic law, when one faces 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. This was substantiated by the
affidavit of Capt. Place, who was the commander of the aforementioned Lockheed
C-141B Starlifter, which was flying into New Delhi at the time of the crash. The
members of his crew filed similar affidavits.
Furthermore, Indira Gandhi International Airport did not have secondary
surveillance radar, which provides extra information, such as the aircraft's
identity and altitude, by reading transponder signals; instead the airport
had primary radar, which produces readings of distance and bearing, but
not altitude. 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. 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 inbound and outbound 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
Reduction of the airspace over New Delhi that 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 airborne collision avoidance system.
Disaster in popular media Miditech, a company based in Gurgaon,
Haryana, produced a documentary about the disaster called Head On!, which
aired on the National Geographic Channel.
The disaster was again the subject of an episode in the documentary series Mayday
on 2 March 2009 entitled "Sight Unseen", in a wide-screen format with
sophisticated computer animations on National Geographic Channel.
See also List of accidents and incidents on
commercial airliners Traffic collision avoidance system
References Further reading
(Arabic) al-Qawz, Anas. - Book title: مواقف طيار.
Obeikan, 2000. - Book by Saudi pilot which has a portion discussing this
incident External links
Directorate General of Civil Aviation OPERATIONS CIRCULAR NO.3 OF 1999
"Officials say hundreds feared killed in airline collision over India". CNN.
November 12, 1996. "Pilot error focus of India collision
investigation". CNN. November 14, 1996. "Turbulence factor gains ground in
Charkhi-Dadri crash probe". United News of India at The Indian Express. Monday
May 26, 1997. Burns, John F. "Indian and Kazak
Officials Trade Accusations in Air Collision." The New York Times. November
15, 1996. "Kazakh aircraft held responsible for
Charkhi Dadri mishap". Rediff.