page_title: Libyan Arab Airlines Flight 114
section_title: Timeline
hierarchical_section_title: Libyan Arab Airlines Flight 114 / Timeline
caption_attribution_description: English: &#160;United Kingdom, London Heathrow Airport. Libyan Arab Airlines Boeing 727-224, 5A-DAH, c/n 20244/650, first flight on October 16, 1968, allocated to Continental Air Lines as N1782B but not taken up. Delivered to Libyan Arab Airlines on December 28, 1970 and registered 5A-DAH. On February 21, 1973 was destroyed on flight after having intercepted by two Israeli Air Force F-4E Phantom II over the Sinai Desert, due to flight deviation, from the planned route from Benghazi to Cairo which beacon was not functioning properly. The aircraft was hit by tracers at the right wingtips and fire erupted. The crew tried to make a belly landing in the desert near Ismaïlia causing 108 fatalities on 113 occupants.
context_page_description: Libyan Arab Airlines Flight 114 was a regularly scheduled flight from Tripoli to Cairo via Benghazi. In 1973 a Boeing 727-200 that was serving this flight was shot down by Israeli fighter jets.
  On 21 February 1973, the aircraft left Tripoli and flew to Benghazi. After taking off from Benghazi, it became lost because of a combination of bad weather and equipment failure over northern Egypt. It entered airspace over the Sinai Peninsula, where it was intercepted by two Israeli F-4 Phantom IIs, and was shot down after several attempts from the Israeli fighter pilots to make the Libyan aircraft land. Of the 113 people on board, there were five survivors, including the co-pilot.
context_section_description: The flight was operated with a Boeing 727–224, registration 5A-DAH, Flight 114 was an international scheduled Tripoli–Benghazi–Cairo passenger service. There was a crew of nine on board the aircraft. Five crew members were French, including the pilot-in-command, 42-year-old Jacques Bourges. The crew were contracted to Air France and Libyan Arab Airlines. After a brief stop in Benghazi, the aircraft continued to Cairo with 113 people on board. Most of the passengers were Arabs but there were two Germans and an American on board.
  Normally, the Benghazi–Cairo route was flown eastwards along the Libyan coast until reaching the city of Sidi Barrani in Egypt, where the airway turned inland to the VHF omnidirectional range (VOR) and non-directional beacon (NDB) area located west of Lake Qarun. The entry to the Cairo terminal area was made on a north-easterly heading over a 71-nautical-mile (131 km) long path that separated Lake Qarun from the Cairo VOR. At 13:45 the Cairo traffic control (CTC) saw the aircraft approaching from the west. Permission was granted to land in runway 23. CTC surprisingly saw the Boeing heading eastward towards the Suez Canal at 13:50. Evidence from both the recovered Boeing 727 voice recorders and the Israeli authorities' flight data recorder later showed that the Libyan aircraft was likely to have been already off course when it reported its position over Qarun, probably due to strong westerly upper-level winds associated to a low level sandstorm. The crew was forced to rely on instrument navigation because of this sandstorm. Both instrument and navigational error caused the aircraft to go off course, entering Israeli-controlled airspace over the Sinai Peninsula. By this time the aircraft had been lost from the Egyptian air traffic control. The crew believed they were close to the destination airport and started the descent.
  At 13:55 the aircraft was detected in the radar by the Israelis as it was entering Israeli airspace; it was located south-east of Suez at an altitude of 15,000 feet (4,600 m). Two Israeli Air Force Phantoms were sent to intercept the then-unidentified aircraft. Following the re-establishment of communications with CTC the pilot of the Libyan aircraft looked through the cabin's port window and saw the fighters, but he mistook them for Egyptian MIGs. The Libyan aircraft continued flying deeper into the Sinai at a speed of 325 miles per hour (523 km/h), but it suddenly veered to the west. At this point the Boeing's crew realised they were having problems with their instruments. The 727 adopting a westward course was interpreted by the Israeli pilots as an attempt to flee. The Israeli fighter pilots attempted to make visual contact with the passenger airliner's crew and tried to communicate to them several times by signaling with their hands. With a gesture, the 727's pilot responded with a refusal, showing their intentions to continue flying on instead. The fighters replied by dipping their wings but this was once again ignored by the Libyan airliner crew. It was at this time that the Israeli fighters attacked.
  The Israeli Phantom pilots fired bursts from their 20 mm M61 cannons, severely damaging the airliner's control surfaces, hydraulic systems, and wing structure. Flight 114 attempted an emergency landing but the aircraft hit the top of a sand dune; it bounced hard and a wing section was tore off before the airframe slid down a slope. Thirteen people were still alive in the burning wreckage when Israeli soldiers arrived at the crash site; seven of them still lived two days later. 108 of the 113 people aboard died, including the former foreign minister, Salah Busir.
caption: 5A-DAH, the Libyan Arab Airlines Boeing 727 that was involved in the incident, in 1972.
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