1996 Charkhi Dadri mid-air collision

Saudia Flight 763
Kazakhstan Airlines Flight 1907

Accident
Date	12 November 1996
Summary	Mid-air collision
Site	Charkhi Dadri, Haryana, India 28°33′38″N 76°18′15″E
Total fatalities	349
Total survivors	0
First aircraft
HZ-AIH, the 747 involved, in the early 1980s.
Type	Boeing 747-168B
Operator	Saudia
Registration	HZ-AIH
Flight origin	Indira Gandhi International Airport, Delhi, India
Destination	Dhahran International Airport, Dhahran, Saudi Arabia
Passengers	289
Crew	23
Fatalities	312
Survivors	0
Second aircraft
UN-76435, the Ilyushin Il-76TD involved in the collision, in 1994.
Type	Ilyushin Il-76TD
Operator	Kazakhstan Airlines
Registration	UN-76435
Flight origin	Chimkent Airport, Kazakhstan
Destination	Indira Gandhi International Airport, Delhi, India
Passengers	27
Crew	10
Fatalities	37
Survivors	0

On 12 November 1996, Saudia Flight 763, a Boeing 747 en route from Delhi, India, to Dhahran, Saudi Arabia, and Kazakhstan Airlines Flight 1907, an Ilyushin Il-76 en route from Chimkent, Kazakhstan, to Delhi, collided over the village of Charkhi Dadri, around 100 km (62 mi; 54 nmi) west of Delhi. The crash killed all 349 people on board both planes, making it the world's deadliest mid-air collision and the deadliest aviation accident to occur in India.

Collision

The Saudi Arabian Airlines (Saudia) Boeing 747-168B, registration HZ-AIH, was flying the first leg of a scheduled international Delhi–Dhahran–Jeddah passenger service as Flight SVA763 with 312 people on board; the Kazakhstan Airlines Ilyushin Il-76TD, registration UN-76435, was on a charter service from Chimkent Airport to Delhi as KZA1907. SVA763 departed Delhi at 18:32 local time (13:02 UTC). KZA1907 was descending simultaneously, 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 Ahmed Edrees. The crew of KZA1907 consisted of Captain Alexander Cherepanov, First Officer Ermek Dzhangirov, Flight Engineer Alexander Chuprov, Navigator Zhahanbek Aripbaev, and Radio Operator Egor Repp.

KZA1907 was cleared to descend to 15,000 feet (4,600 m) when it was 74 nautical miles (137 km) 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 (4,300 m). About eight minutes later, around 18:40, KZA1907 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. At this time, Dutta advised the flight, "Identified traffic 12 o'clock, reciprocal Saudia Boeing 747, 10 nautical miles (19 km). Report in sight."

When the controller called KZA1907 again, he received no reply. He tried to warn of the other flight's distance, but was too late. The two aircraft collided, with the tail of KZA1907 slicing through SVA763's left wing and horizontal stabiliser. The crippled Saudi Boeing quickly lost control and went into a rapidly descending spiral with fire trailing from the wing, and the aircraft broke up in mid air before crashing into the ground at a nearly supersonic speed of 1,135 km/h (613 kn; 705 mph). The Ilyushin remained structurally intact as it entered 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.

The collision took place about 100 kilometres (60 mi) west of Delhi. The wreckage of the Saudi Arabian aircraft landed near Dhani village, Bhiwani District, Haryana. The wreckage of the Kazakh aircraft hit the ground near Birohar village, Rohtak District, Haryana.

Passengers and crew

Saudia Flight 763

The captain of the flight was a 45-year old veteran pilot with more than 9,800 flying hours. 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 published a day earlier in the same newspaper, the passenger manifest included 17 people of other nationalities, including nine Nepalis, three Pakistanis, two Americans, one Bangladeshi, one British, and one Saudi. Twelve of the crew members, including five anti-terrorism officials, were Saudi citizens.

Kazakhstan Airlines Flight 1907

The captain of Flight 1907, aged 44, was also highly experienced, with more than 9,200 flight hours. 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 Kazakhstani Il-76 commander, who (according to FDR evidence) had descended from the assigned altitude of 15,000 to 14,500 feet (4,600 to 4,400 m) and subsequently 14,000 feet (4,300 m) 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 Kazakhstani 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 and had to look over the pilots' shoulders for a reading. Kazakhstani 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 Kazakhstani pilots sometimes confused their calculations because they are accustomed to using metre altitudes and kilometre distances, while most other countries use feet and nautical miles respectively for aerial navigation.

Just a few seconds from impact, the Kazakhstani 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 Arabian plane. The tail of the Kazakhstani plane clipped the left wing of the Saudi Arabian jet, severing both parts from their respective planes. Had the Kazakhstani pilots not climbed slightly, it is likely that they would have passed under the Saudi Arabian plane.

The recorder of the Saudi Arabian 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, departures and arrivals both shared a single corridor within the civilian airspace around New Delhi. Most areas have separate corridors: one for departures and another one for arrivals. But the airspace of Delhi in 1996 had only 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

Aftermath

The Directorate General of Civil Aviation subsequently made it mandatory for all aircraft flying in and out of India to be equipped with an airborne collision avoidance system. This set a worldwide precedent for mandatory use of Traffic Collision Avoidance System.

Documentaries

Miditech, a company based in Gurugram, Haryana, produced a documentary about the disaster called Head On!, which aired on the National Geographic Channel.

The disaster was also the subject of an episode in the documentary series Mayday (Air Crash Investigation) on 11 November 2009 entitled "Sight Unseen", also shown on the National Geographic Channel.

See also

• List of accidents and incidents involving airliners by airline
• Überlingen mid-air collision
• 2001 Japan Airlines mid-air incident

References

• Lahoti, R.C. "Report of Court of Inquiry on Mid-Air Collision Between Saudi Arabian Boeing 747 and Kazakhstan IL-76 on 12th November, 1996 Near Delhi - India (Charkhi-Dadri, Haryana)". Directorate General of Civil Aviation, Ministry of Civil Aviation. (PDF)

Further reading

• Anas al-Qawz. A Pilot's Encounters. Obeikan, 2000. (in Arabic): Book by a Saudi pilot which discusses this incident
• Bhavya Dore. "Collision". Fifty Two. 9 October 2020.

External links

External image

Pre-Crash photos of the two airliners at Airliners.net

• Directorate General of Civil Aviation
  • Final Report
  • OPERATIONS CIRCULAR NO.3 OF 1999 (Archived 24 February 2012 at the Wayback Machine)
• "Officials say hundreds feared killed in airline collision over India" (Archive). CNN. 12 November 1996.
• "Pilot error focus of India collision investigation" (Archive). CNN. 14 November 1996.
• Burns, John F. "Indian and Kazak Officials Trade Accusations in Air Collision." The New York Times. 15 November 1996.
• Centre for Disaster Management (Haryana Institute of Public Administration) Case Study: Charkhi Dadri Mid Air Collision
• New article on the crash
• Victims, crash site of the mid-air collision from Associated Press Archive