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PIA268
This is the first aviation disaster i ever heard of, and the reason my interest in aviation was boosted so much. PIA flight 268 was a flight flying the route from Karachi International (KHI/OPKC) in Pakistan to Kathmandu Tribhuvan International (KTM/VNKT) in Nepal. On final approach, however, the flight crashed into a mountain in Bhattedanda, Nepal, killing everyone on board. It is to this day the worst accident in Nepal, the worst accident of Pakistan International, and the 6th worst A300 crash ever.
It is to be noted that the accident happened 59 days after Thai 311 which crashed under 'similar' conditiond (CFIT into a mountain due to pilor error on approach)
THE AIRCRAFT was a Airbus A300B4-203 built in 1976, registration AP-BCP (at the time of the crash), serial 025, operated by Pakistan International (PIA). The aircraft operated with a total of 8 airlines, counting PIA. These are Bavaria Germany, Egyptair, Hapag-loyd, Kuwait airways, Capitol Air, Air Jamaica, Condor and, of course, PIA.
At the time of the crash, the aircraft had accumulated 39.045 hours of flying (about 1627 days in my calculations)
THE FLIGHT was being flown by a capitan (13192 hours, 6260 in the type), a first officer (5850 hours, 1470 on the type) and two engineers (2516 and 4503 hours on the type), there were also 8 cabin crew on the flight. A total of 155 passangers were boarded, and at 11:13 local time, Pakistan268 took off.
After contacting Nepalese ATC, they were cleared to approach from the south (sierra approach) It is of my understanding that as of 1992, Nepal did not have a modern ATC system (they did not use screens, but blocks, so they did not see the aircraft, they relied on communiction to know where the aircraft was). The aircraft started the approach, decending in 7 steps in order to reach 5800 feet in the difficult Kathmandu approach, but due to pilot error, they were using their decent chart 1 step ahead (for example, if the chart said to decend to 12000 feet, then to 10000, they were decending to 10000 instead of 12000, so they were going too low). At time of impact they were more than 1000 too low. Their last contact with Kathmandu ATC was to report 10DME at 9500 feet. It is to be noted that ATC at Nepal was known at the time for being 'timid' when reporting ground clearance.
Shortly after, PIA268 crashed into a mountain at about 7300 feet, killing everyone on board instantly.
Weather according to locals was calm, almost no wind or any downgrading meteorogical conditions.
LINKS:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pakist...0nationalities.
Photos on the database
It is to be noted that the accident happened 59 days after Thai 311 which crashed under 'similar' conditiond (CFIT into a mountain due to pilor error on approach)
THE AIRCRAFT was a Airbus A300B4-203 built in 1976, registration AP-BCP (at the time of the crash), serial 025, operated by Pakistan International (PIA). The aircraft operated with a total of 8 airlines, counting PIA. These are Bavaria Germany, Egyptair, Hapag-loyd, Kuwait airways, Capitol Air, Air Jamaica, Condor and, of course, PIA.
At the time of the crash, the aircraft had accumulated 39.045 hours of flying (about 1627 days in my calculations)
THE FLIGHT was being flown by a capitan (13192 hours, 6260 in the type), a first officer (5850 hours, 1470 on the type) and two engineers (2516 and 4503 hours on the type), there were also 8 cabin crew on the flight. A total of 155 passangers were boarded, and at 11:13 local time, Pakistan268 took off.
After contacting Nepalese ATC, they were cleared to approach from the south (sierra approach) It is of my understanding that as of 1992, Nepal did not have a modern ATC system (they did not use screens, but blocks, so they did not see the aircraft, they relied on communiction to know where the aircraft was). The aircraft started the approach, decending in 7 steps in order to reach 5800 feet in the difficult Kathmandu approach, but due to pilot error, they were using their decent chart 1 step ahead (for example, if the chart said to decend to 12000 feet, then to 10000, they were decending to 10000 instead of 12000, so they were going too low). At time of impact they were more than 1000 too low. Their last contact with Kathmandu ATC was to report 10DME at 9500 feet. It is to be noted that ATC at Nepal was known at the time for being 'timid' when reporting ground clearance.
Shortly after, PIA268 crashed into a mountain at about 7300 feet, killing everyone on board instantly.
Weather according to locals was calm, almost no wind or any downgrading meteorogical conditions.
LINKS:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pakist...0nationalities.
Photos on the database
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