Charkhi Dadri mid-air collision

Charkhi Dadri mid-air collision occurred on 12 November 1996 over the village of Charkhi Dadri in Haryana, India. The collision happened between Saudi Arabian Airlines Boeing 747-100B from Delhi to Dhahran (Saudi Arabia) and Kazakhstan Airlines Illyushin II-76 from Chimkent, Kazakhstan to Delhi. All 349 people on both airplanes died in the crash.

Accident
NationalityFlight 763Flight 1907TotalPassengersCrewPassengersCrew   215  0  0  0 215   40  0  0  0  40   0  0  14  0  14   0  0  13  0  13   0  0  0  10  10   5  0  0  0  5   3  0  0  0   3   2  0  0  0  2   1  0  0  0   1   1  23  0  0   24 Total  267  23  27  10  327

SVA763 (Saudi Arabian Airlines Flight 763 - Boeing 747-100B) departed from Delhi International Airport to Dhahran at 18:35. KZA1907 (Kazakhstan Airlines Flight 1907 -  Illyushin II-76) was descending to Delhi airport at the same time. Both flights were controlled by VK Dutta. KZA1907 was cleared to descend 15,000 feet altitude, whereas SVA763 was cleared to climb to 14,000feet. After 8 min, KZA1907 reported that they reached 15000 ft altitude, but they were descending to 14,500 ft at that time and were continuing the descent.
The collision and crash
Not noticing it, soon the KZA1907's tail cut through SVA763's left wing. SVA763 lost control and hit the ground at 1135 kmph. The Boeing 747 remained structurally intact as it went in a steady but fast and uncontrolled descent until it crashed into the field and engulfed by flames, killing everyone both airplanes.
Crash site
The collision took place about  west of Delhi. The wreckage of the Saudi aircraft crashed near Dhani village, Bhiwani District, Haryana. The wreckage of the Kazakh aircraft hit the ground near Birohar village, Rohtak District, Haryana.

Investigation
The crash was investigated by the Lahoti Commission, headed by then-Delhi High Court judge Ramesh Chandra Lahoti. The flight data recorders were decoded by Kazakhstan Airlines and Saudi Airlines under the supervision of air crash investigators in Moscow and Farnborough, England, respectively.
The commission determined that the accident had been the fault of the Kazakh Il-76 commander, who had descended from the assigned altitude of  and subsequently  and even lower. The report says that the cause of this serious problem in operating procedure was due to the lack of English language skills on the part of the Kazakh aircraft pilots; they were dependent entirely on their radio operator for communications with the ATC.

Just a few seconds from impact, the Kazakh 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 tail of the Kazakh plane clipped the left wing of the Saudi jet, severing both parts from their respective planes.

Documentaries
The disaster was again the subject of an episode in the documentary series Mayday (TV series) on 2 March 2009 entitled "Sight Unseen", in a wide-screen format with sophisticated computer animations on National Geographic Channel.

References

Category:Aviation accidents and incidents in Asia
Category:Haryana
Category:1990s disasters in India
Category:Aviation accidents and incidents in the 1990s
Category:1996 disasters in Asia
Category:1996 events