Organization: Arizona State University
Date: Wednesday, 30 Sep 1992 10:32:08 MST
From: <ASRPA@ASUACAD.BITNET>
Newsgroups: soc.culture.nepal
Subject:    More more on plane crash


******************************************************************
                     Copyright 1992 Agence France Presse
                              Agence France Presse

                               September  29, 1992

SECTION: News

LENGTH: 720 words

HEADLINE: Aviation experts say pilot error likely cause of PIA
crash

DATELINE: KATHMANDU

 BODY:
    Pilot error and a lack of guidance equipment at Kathmandu
airport were the  likely causes of Monday's crash of a Pakistan
International Airlines (PIA)  Airbus that killed 167 people,
aviation experts said Tuesday.

    Senior pilots at Royal  Nepal  Airlines Corp. (RNAC) said the
Airbus A-300  was flying too low on its approach to Kathmandu's
Tribhuvan International  Airport and that the plane should have
been above 9,000 feet (2,700 metres) when  it was 15 kilometres
(nine miles) from the runway.


    The pilots, who refused to be named, said cockpit error was the
most likely   reason for the plane being below the correct
altitude, causing it to smash into   Bhate Bhir Hill at an altitude
of 8,350 feet (2,530 metres) just six minutes  before it was due to
land.

    "The aircraft should have been above 9,000 feet because of two
mountains  between 8,300 and 8,500 feet located on both sides of
the air corridor  prescribed for inbound aircraft," a pilot said.


    The crash of PIA flight 268 from Karachi follows a similar
disaster on July   31 when a Thai International Airlines (THAI)
Airbus A310-300 ploughed into a  mountain northwest of here,
killing all 113 people aboard.

    Kathmandu airport is equipped with a guidance beacon but does
not have full   radar coverage to allow air traffic controllers to
warn jets that they are off  course or too low.

    A civil aviation department official said the government was
rushing to  install a radar system and extend the runway to improve
safety at the airport.

    (In Bangkok a THAI pilot, speaking on condition of anonymity,
said: "Pilots   must be very well-trained to land there because the
final approach is so  difficult, but many factors are involved, not
just the condition of the airport   -- visibility, human error and
so on."

    (But an official of the airline added: "Even though the airport
is not fully  covered by radar it can be considered as up to
standard. It has been passsed and  checked by the ICAO
(International Civil Aviation Organisation)."

    ("We have been flying there for over 20 years and until July
never had any  problem.")

    Rain throughout the night hampered efforts to recover the
remains of the 155  passengers and 12 crew which were scattered
widely over a 500 square metre

    (600 square yard) radius, including in a deep gorge, a Home
Ministry  official said.

    If the weather improves, the bodies, many of which were
dismembered or  burned beyond recognition, would be flown to
Kathmandu later Tuesday for  identification before being turned
over to relatives, the official said.

    The cockpit and parts of the fuselage of the Airbus continued
burning late  into the night as rescue workers could not put the
fire out, the official  said.

    Despite its proximity to the Nepalese capital, there are no
good roads near   the crash site, which is on a steep hill covered
in jungle.

    PIA published a partial list of the nationalities of those on
board the  plane, including 19 Pakistani passengers and 12 crew, 29
Spaniards, 12 Dutch, 10  Italians, three Britons, two Swiss, two
Bangladeshis and one Japanese.

    Some 33 Nepalese flying back from the Middle East for the Hindu
holiday of  Dasain were also killed in the crash.

    A team of PIA and civil aviation officials was due to leave
Pakistan Tuesday  for Kathmandu to collect information about the
crash, the official said.

    A team of investigators from the manufacturer, French-based
Airbus  Industrie, was also expected Tuesday to begin an attempt to
determine the cause   of the crash.
______________________________________________

                     Copyright 1992 Agence France Presse
                              Agence France Presse

                               September  29, 1992

SECTION: News

LENGTH: 547 words

HEADLINE: Rescuers fly out first bodies from Airbus crash site

DATELINE: KATHMANDU

 BODY:
    A Nepalese rescue team returned Tuesday with four bodies from
the site where  a Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) Airbus
slammed into a hill and burst  into flames a day earlier, officials
said here.

    They said the bodies were being kept on a golf course behind
the  international airport for identification purposes, adding that
14 other victims   of Monday's crash would be ferried to the city
soon.


    Twelve crew and 155 passengers died instantly when the PIA
Airbus A-300  crashed six minutes away from landing while lining up
for its landing at the  airport here.

    Some of the bodies were mutilated beyond recognition, while the
others were   partly intact, an official disclosed, but could not
say when all the corpses  could be retrieved from Bhatte Danda, the
site of the accident, 16 kilometres  (10 miles) southeast of
Kathmandu.

    Bad weather overnight hampered the rescue and salvage
operation, but the  officials said the weather had lifted partly
Tuesday and would enable them to  speed up the mission.

    Pilot error and bad visibility are being cited as a possible
cause of the  crash, the second since July 31 when a Thai
International Airbus A-310 rammed  into a mountain northwest of
here, killing all 113 people onboard.

    Meanwhile a team of PIA and Pakistani civil aviation officials
left Karachi   Tuesday for  Nepal  to inspect the wreckage of the
crashed Airbus, a PIA  spokesman said.

    The team which took a special plane will also hold meetings
with Nepalese  officials, the spokesman said.

    In Karachi, 13 people -- 12 Europeans and a Japanese -- were
blessing their   luck for missing the Pakistani Airbus flight,
reports here said.

    The Europeans missed the ill-fated flight to Kathmandu from
Karachi because   their flight from Europe was delayed at
Frankfurt, press reports said.

    "We were cursing the delayed flight because it meant two wasted
days," said   a Swiss national, quoted by a local newspaper.

    Erzer Ronato, a student of cultural anthropology at Bern
University in  Switzerland, was travelling to Kathmandu for
mountaineering along with a Swiss  friend Wyss Christian, the daily
The News said.

    "I never believed in fate, but it has saved our lives," Ronato
was quoted as  saying.

    The 12 included six Swiss, one French, one German and four
Dutch people, the  report said.


    A Japanese named Katsuyuku Onu was, however, the luckiest of
the lot.

    He had checked in and secured his boarding card, but was
stopped by  immigration because he had not obtained a required exit
permit from police  headquarters, the report said.
_________________________________________________________________
                     Copyright 1992 Agence France Presse
                              Agence France Presse

                               September  29, 1992

SECTION: News

LENGTH: 694 words

HEADLINE: Corpses pulled from Airbus crash site, landing aids
faulted

DATELINE: KATHMANDU

 BODY:
    Rescuers brought out 20 bodies Tuesday from the site where a
Pakistan  International Airlines (PIA) Airbus crashed, as experts
said pilot error or  inadequate landing aids were the likely cause
of the disaster.

    Bits and pieces of bodies littered the disaster site on Bhatte
Bhir  mountain, 16 kilometres (10 miles) south of here, where the
plane's tail section  stuck precariously on a cliff side continued
to smoulder.

    A fine drizzle failed to douse the smouldering wreckage,
witnesses said,  adding that the rain was slowing down the rescuers
trying to reach the bodies  through dense jungle.

    Baggage torn from the smashed twin-engined plane's holds
littered the area,   but officials said the 280 army and police
personnel engaged in the operation  would first try to bring out
the dead.

    Twelve crew members and 155 passengers were aboard PIA
flight-268 when it  crashed and burst into flames Monday,
scattering victims across an area 600 feet  (200 metres) wide.

    Experts ruled out any survivors saying the impact of the plane
was  tremendous, causing the entire Airbus to break up before
igniting in a ball of  fire.

    The PIA A-300 was lining up for the landing at Kathmandu's
Tribhuvan  International Airport when it flew into the jagged
mountain.

    Some witnesses said they saw the plane catch fire in mid-air
before  plunging, but their accounts could not be verified.


    Four of the 20 bodies recovered from the PIA Karachi-Kathmandu
flight have  been flown back and stored at a golf course here for
identification purposes.

    Pilot error and bad visibility were being cited here as a cause
of the  crash.

    Senior pilots at Royal  Nepal  Airlines Corp. said the Airbus
A-300 was  flying too low on its approach to Kathmandu's Tribhuvan
International Airport  and that the plane should have been above
9,000 feet (2,700 metres) when it was   15 kilometres (nine miles)
from the runway.

    The pilots, who refused to be named, said a cockpit error was
the most  likely reason for the plane being below the correct
altitude, causing it to  smash into Bhatte Bhir at an altitude of
8,350 feet (2,530 metres) just six  minutes before it was due to
land.

    "The aircraft should have been above 9,000 feet because of two
mountains  between 8,300 and 8,500 feet located on both sides of
the air corridor  prescribed for inbound aircraft," a pilot said.

      Kathmandu airport is equipped with a guidance beacon but does
not have full   radar coverage to allow air traffic controllers to
warn jets that they are off  course or too low.

    A civil aviation department official said the government was
rushing to  install a radar system and extend the runway to improve
safety at the airport.

    PIA in a partial list of nationalities of those killed said
there were 19  Pakistani passengers and 12 crew, 29 Spaniards, 12
Dutch, 10 Italians, three  Britons, two Swiss, two Bangladeshis and
one Japanese.

    Some 33 Nepalese flying home also died in the crash, the second
in two  months after a Thai International Airbus A-300 slammed into
another hill  northwest of Kathmandu killing all 113 people on
board on July 31.

    A PIA team has left Islamabad for Kathmandu for investigations,
while  officials said a six-member team from the French-led
European Airbus Industries   would also launch an investigation
into Monday's crash.
__________________________________________________________
                     Copyright 1992 Agence France Presse
                              Agence France Presse

                               September  29, 1992

HEADLINE: Corpses dot Airbus crash site, 58 bodies retrieved

DATELINE: KATHMANDU

 BODY:
    Nepalese army helicopters Tuesday flew back 58 corpses of the
167 people who  died after a Pakistan International Airlines (PIA)
Airbus slammed into a  mountainside near here.

    Rescuers, working non-stop since the plane crashed Monday in
the  Bhatti-Danda mountains, also dug out the A-300's Cockpit Voice
Recorder (CVR)  Tuesday from the wreckage site, 16 kilometres (10
miles) south of here,  officials said.

    The crucial cockpit digital recorder, or black box, has yet to
be retrieved,  they said.

    The 58 badly mutiliated bodies have been flown out of the crash
site and put  on slabs of ice to slow down their further
decomposition, witnesses said.

    Bits and pieces of bodies littered the disaster site on Bhatte
Bhir  mountain, 16 kilometres (10 miles) south from here.

    Baggage torn from the smashed twin-engined plane's holds was
also strewn  over the area, but officials said the 280 army and
police personnel engaged in  the operation would first try to bring
out all the dead.

    Twelve crew members and 155 passengers were aboard PIA
flight-268 when it  crashed and burst into flames Monday,
scattering victims across an area 600 feet  (200 metres) wide.
Experts have ruled out any hope of survivors, saying the  impact of
the plane was tremendous.

    The PIA A-300 was lining up for the landing at Kathmandu's
Tribhuvan  International Airport six minutes away when it flew into
the jagged mountain.

    Some witnesses said they saw the plane catch fire in mid-air
before  plunging, but their accounts could not be verified.

    Despite its proximity to the Nepalese capital, there are no
good roads near the crash site, which is on a steep hill covered in
jungle.

    A badly charred body still clutching a passport in her fingers
was brought  out from the wreckage. The rescuers said the woman
appeared to be an Australian   from her burnt travel papers.

    Pilot error and bad visibility were being cited here as a cause
of the  crash.

    Senior pilots at Royal  Nepal  Airlines Corp. said the Airbus
A-300 was  flying too low on its approach to Kathmandu's Tribhuvan
International Airport  and that the plane should have been above
9,000 feet (2,700 metres) when it was   15 kilometres (nine miles)
from the runway.

    The pilots, who refused to be named, said a cockpit error was
the most likely reason for the plane being below the correct
altitude, causing it to smash into Bhatte Bhir at an altitude of
8,350 feet (2,530 metres) just six minutes before it was due to
land.

    "The aircraft should have been above 9,000 feet because of two
mountains  between 8,300 and 8,500 feet located on both sides of
the air corridor  prescribed for inbound aircraft," a pilot said.

    Kathmandu airport is equipped with a guidance beacon but does
not have full   radar coverage to allow air traffic controllers to
warn jets that they are off  course or too low.

    A civil aviation department official said the government was
rushing to  install a radar system and extend the runway to improve
safety at the airport.

    PIA in a partial list of nationalities of those killed said
there were 19  Pakistani passengers and 12 crew, 29 Spaniards, 12
Dutch, 10 Italians, three  Britons, two Swiss, two Bangladeshis and
one Japanese.

    Airport officials said the rescuers had identified one of the
salvaged  victims as Roopak Sharma, chief of Kathmandu city police.

    Sharma, a senior police superintendent, was one of the 33
Nepalese flying back home aboard the Airbus who also died in the
crash.

    It was the second crash in two months after a Thai
International Airbus  A-300 slammed into another hill northwest of
Kathmandu killing all 113 people  onboard on July 31.

    A PIA team has left Islamabad for Kathmandu for investigations,
while  officials said a six-member team from the French-led
European Airbus Industries   would also launch an investigation
into Monday's crash.
_______________________________________________________
                     Copyright 1992 Agence France Presse
                              Agence France Presse

                               September  29, 1992

SECTION: News

LENGTH: 134 words

HEADLINE: PIA gives new list of nationalities of Airbus victims

DATELINE: KARACHI

 BODY:
    Pakistan International Airlines gave here Tuesday a revised
list of the  nationalities of the 167 people killed in the crash of
its Airbus in  Nepal   Monday.

    The list increased to 36 from 34 the number of Britons aboard,
and had four   Bangladeshis instead of two mentioned previously. It
also changed from six to  two the number of those whose
nationalities were unknown.

    As on Monday, the latest list had 30 Pakistanis including 19
crew, 30  Nepalese, two Canadians, 10 Italians, 30 Spaniards, 14
Dutch, two French, two  Swiss, three Americans, one Japanese and
one infant whose nationality was not  given.