Organization: Arizona State University
Date: Tuesday, 29 Sep 1992 11:20:28 MST
From: <ASRPA@ASUACAD.BITNET>
Newsgroups: soc.culture.nepal
Subject:    Some more news on plane crash

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     Pakistani plane crashes in Nepal, all 167 aboard killed
     _______________________________________________________

Copyright 1992 Reuters, Limited, September 28, 1992

   A Pakistani airliner crashed in a rainstorm and burst into
flames as it was  about to land at Katmandu airport Monday, killing
all 167 people on board,  including three Americans, officials
said.

   The Pakistan Airlines Airbus 300 hit a hill eight miles south of
the airport   after a scheduled flight from Karachi in the second
major air disaster near the airport in two months.

   "The wreckage of the aircraft is burning and chances of tracing
any survivors  are remote," said senior airport official Nagendra
Ghimire.

   State-run Radio  Nepal  said there were no survivors from PIA's
Flight PK268.

   A PIA statement issued in Karachi said the 167 people on board
included 148  passengers, 12 crew, four airline guards and three
aircraft engineers. An  airline spokesman had said earlier there
were 155 passengers.

   The nationalities of all the passengers was not known, but PIA
officials said  they included 34 Britons, 30 Spaniards, 30
Pakistanis including the crew, 30  Nepalis, 14 Dutch nationals, 10
Italians, three Americans, two Swiss nationals,   two Canadians,
two Bangladesh citizens and one Japanese.

   Nationalities of the others were not yet known, it said.

   Most of the others were Nepalis returning home from jobs in the
Middle East  for the Hindu Dasain festival which began Sunday, an
official of the Royal   Nepal  Airlines Corporation said.

   On July 31, a Thai Airways Airbus A310-300 slammed into a
mountain ridge  after trying unsuccessfully to land at Katmandu
airport. All 113 people on board  were killed.

   One of the victims of Monday's crash was Nepali police officer
and  international soccer referee Rupak Sharma, who had helped
coordinate rescue  efforts for the Thai airliner crash.

    Nepal  television showed film of the crashed plane and said the
bodies of  the victims would be brought to the airport Tuesday for
identification.

   Katmandu airport is considered difficult by pilots, who have to
spiral down  to the runway to avoid the surrounding Himalayas. The
airport has no radar and  planes are guided in by radio beacon.

   An Indian pilot who flies regularly to Katmandu said the landing
was tricky  because of the sharp drop into the valley.

   He said the rate of descent once the plane cleared the mountains
was about  2,000 feet per minute instead of the usual 600 feet per
minute.

   The crash was the second major air disaster in two days. At
least 180 people,  including officers at an elite staff college,
were killed when a Nigerian air  force Lockheed C-130 transport
crashed near Lagos Saturday, military sources in   Nigeria said.

   The cause of Monday's crash was not immediately known, but
airport sources  said the aircraft was flying about 1,500 feet
below its prescribed altitude.

   The sources said said radio contact with the plane was lost at
about 2 p.m.,   just before it was due to land.

   It was not known whether the PIA crew had reported any problems
before radio   contact was lost.

   The last PIA crash was in August 1989 when a Fokker Friendship
vanished in  the mountains of northern Pakistan with 54 people on
board. The plane was never   found.

   In November 1979, a PIA Boeing 707 crashed in Saudi Arabia with
156 people on  board, most of them Pakistanis returning from a
Moslem pilgrimage to Mecca. All   of them were killed.
________________________________________________________


   On July 31, a Thai Airways A310-300 slammed into a Himalayan
ridge north of  Katmandu and exploded. All 113 people aboard were
killed instantly.

   One PIA (Pakistani Airlines) source said about a dozen of the
passengers on  Monday's flight PK268, an Airbus 300, were Pakistani
and the rest were  foreigners.

   Most were Nepalis returning home from the Middle East for the
Dasain  festival, a major Hindu celebration, said an official of
the Royal  Nepal   Airlines Corp. (RNAC), which handles PIA flights
into  Nepal.

   The plane crashed about 12 miles from the airport in hills on
the southern  side of the saucer-shaped Katmandu Valley, RNAC
officials said.

   They said radio contact with the plane was lost at about 2 p.m.
(4.45 a.m.)  just before it was due to land.

   Other officials at the airport said it was raining at the spot
where the  wreckage was sighted and that helicopters were unable to
fly there. Rescue teams  had been sent overland, they said.

   There was no word on the cause of the crash, but airport sources
said the  plane was flying some 1,500 feet lower than the
prescribed altitude. They said  the aircraft was at 7,500 feet,
compared to the routine 9,000 feet.

   "Visibility was not particularly good at the time," one source
said.

   Katmandu airport is considered tricky by pilots, who have to
spiral down to  the runway to avoid the surrounding Himalayan
mountains. The airport has no  radar and planes are guided in by
beacon.

   It was not known whether the PIA crew had reported any problems
before radio   contact was lost.

   In the Thai Airways crash, its crew had reported problems and
been told by  air controllers to turn south. The plane went north
towards the towering  Himalayas instead.

   A nine-member commission which investigated that crash said
analysis of the  flight data and cockpit voice recorders indicated
problems with the flaps as the  crew prepared to land.

   "The crew did succeed in lowering the flaps but they realized
they were too  close to the airport to complete the approach," said
the commission.

   "The aircraft was given clearance to return southwest to
recommence the  approach," it said in a statement.

   The Thai plane rammed into a mountain ridge in torrential rain
and fog at an   estimated speed of 300 miles an hour with enough
fuel for the return flight to  Bangkok, civil aviation sources in
Katmandu said.
_____________________________________________


HEADLINE: There was no immediate word on whether the PIA pilot had
reported any problems before radio contact was lost, as the crew of
the Thai Airbus had.

   The number of the PIA flight and its airport of origin was not
immediately  known. A nine-member committee which investigated the
Thai Airways crash said  analysis of the flight date and cockpit
voice recorders indicated problems with   the flaps as the crew
prepared to land the plane at Kathmandu.

   The Thai plane was supposed to turn south, but instead headed
north into the Himalayas, where it crashed into a ridge at 11,500
feet.

   Kathmandu airport, set in a saucer-like valley surrounded by
high hills, does  not have radar. Instead, aircraft are guided in
by a radio beam.