Pakistan International Airlines Flight 268

Pakistan International Airlines Flight 268

Wreckage of AP-BCP's tail section
Accident
Date	28 September 1992 (1992-09-28)
Summary	Controlled flight into terrain due to pilot error caused by a misread descent chart
Site	Bhattedanda, Nepal 27°31′58″N85°17′05″E / 27.53278°N 85.28472°E / 27.53278; 85.28472
Aircraft
Aircraft type	Airbus A300B4-103
Operator	Pakistan International Airlines
IATA flight No.	PK268
ICAO flight No.	PIA268
Call sign	PAKISTAN 268
Registration	AP-BCP
Flight origin	Jinnah International Airport
Destination	Tribhuvan International Airport
Occupants	167
Passengers	155
Crew	12
Fatalities	167
Survivors	0

Pakistan International Airlines Flight 268 was an Airbus A300, registration AP-BCP, which crashed while approaching Kathmandu's Tribhuvan International Airport on 28 September 1992. All 167 people on board were killed. Flight 268 is the worst crash of Pakistan International Airlines, and the worst ever to occur in Nepal. ^{[1] [2]}

Aircraft and crew

AP-BCP, the aircraft involved in the accident, seen at Leonardo da Vinci–Fiumicino Airport in February 1992, about 7 months before the incident.

The aircraft involved was a 16-year-old Airbus A300B4-103 registered as AP-BCP (serial number 025). The aircraft was built in 1976 and flew its maiden flight on 23 March the same year. On 2 May 1977, the aircraft was delivered to Bavaria Germanair, and was registered as D-AMAZ. About a week later, it was leased to EgyptAir. The aircraft was re-registered as SU-AZY and subsequently sold to Hapag-Lloyd Flug after its merger with Bavaria Germanair. The aircraft was then re-registered as D-AHLZ and leased to the following airlines:

• EgyptAir (January 1979 –October 1982)
• Kuwait Airways (April –July 1983)
• Capitol Air (June –October 1984)
• Air Jamaica (February –April 1985)
• Condor Flugdienst (May –November 1985)

On 21 April 1986, the aircraft was delivered to Pakistan International Airlines, and was re-registered as AP-BCP. The aircraft had a total of 39,045 flying hours and 19,172 landings at the time of the crash. ^[1]

The captain was 49-year-old Iftikhar Janjua, who had 13,192 flight hours, including 6,260 hours on the Airbus A300. The first officer was 38-year-old Hassan Akhtar, who had 5,849 flight hours, with 1,469 of them on the Airbus A300.

There were two flight engineers on board: one operating and the other observing. The operating flight engineer was an unnamed 40-year-old male who had 5,289 flight hours, with 2,516 of them on the Airbus A300. The observing flight engineer, 42-year-old Muhammad Ashraf, had 8,220 flight hours, including 4,503 hours on the Airbus A300. ^[3]

Accident

Flight 268 departed Karachi at 11:13 AM Pakistan Standard Time for Kathmandu. Upon contacting Nepalese air traffic control, the aircraft was cleared for an approach from the south called the Sierra approach. An aircraft cleared to use this approach was at the time directed to pass over a reporting point called "Romeo" located 41 miles (66 km) south of the Kathmandu VOR (or at 41 DME ) at an altitude of 15,000 feet. The aircraft was to then descend in seven steps to 5,800 feet, passing over a reporting point known as "Sierra" located at 10 DME at an altitude of 9,500 feet, before landing at Kathmandu. This approach allowed aircraft to pass over the Mahabharat Range directly south of Kathmandu (the crest of which is located just north of the Sierra reporting point) at a safe altitude.

Shortly after reporting at 10 DME, at 2.30 pm the aircraft crashed at approximately 7,300 feet (2,200 m) into the side of the 8,250 ft (2,524 m) mountain at Bhattedanda, disintegrating on impact, instantly killing all aboard; the tail fin separated and fell into the forest at the base of the mountainside. ^{[1] [4] [5]}

This accident occurred 59 days after Thai Airways International Flight 311 crashed north of Kathmandu. ^[6]

Victims

Most of the victims were a mix of European, Nepalese and other nationalities.

Nationality	Passengers	Crew	Total
United Kingdom	36	-	36
Nepal	30	-	30
Spain	30	-	30
Pakistan	11	12	23
Netherlands	14	-	14
Other Europeans	14	-	14
Bangladesh	4	-	4
United States	3	-	3
Canada	2	-	2
Unknown	2	-	2
Japan	1	-	1
New Zealand	1	-	1
Total	155	12	167 [5]

Investigation and causes

After the crash, the Nepali Military assisted with investigators to find the aircraft's black box. The investigation was handled by Andrew Robinson from the Air Accident Investigation Branch (AAIB). The black box was initially sent to Paris for decoding. ^[7]

At the time of impact, eye witnesses near the accident site confirmed that there was little to no wind, rain, and no thunderstorms in the area. Investigators found no technical problems documented for the A300 and, after considering it as a cause, subsequently ruled out terrorism. ^[7]

Although no pertinent flight deck conversation was recovered from Flight 268's cockpit voice recorder by investigators with the Transportation Safety Board of Canada (TSB), which assisted with the investigation, data recovered from the flight data recorder by the TSB showed that the aircraft initiated each step of its descent one step too early. ^[4] At 16 DME the aircraft was a full 1,000 feet below its cleared altitude; at 10 DME (the Sierra reporting point) it was 1,300 feet below its cleared altitude. The aircraft approached the Mahabharat Range at an insufficient altitude and crashed into the south slope. ^[1] Although the pilots of Flight 268 reported their aircraft's altitude accurately to air traffic control, controllers did nothing to warn them of their inappropriate altitude until seconds before the accident. ^[4]

Investigators determined that the accident had been caused mainly by pilot error. Visibility was poor due to overcast conditions and the ground proximity warning system would not have been triggered in time because of the steep terrain. ^[4] The approach plates for Kathmandu issued to PIA pilots were also determined to be unclear, ^{[1] [4]} and Nepalese air traffic controllers were judged timid and reluctant to intervene in what they saw as piloting matters such as terrain separation. ^[8] The report recommended that ICAO review navigational charts and encourage their standardisation, and that the approach to Kathmandu Airport be changed to be less complex. ^[4]

Memorials

PIA paid for - and maintains - the Lele PIA Memorial Park at Lele, at the foot of a mountain about 10 km north of the crash site. ^{[9] [10]}

The Wilkins Memorial Trust, a UK charitable organisation that provides aid to Nepal, was established in memory of a family killed in the crash. ^[11]

In popular culture

The accident is featured in the first episode of Season 20 of Mayday, also known as Air Crash Investigation. The episode is titled "Kathmandu Descent". ^[12]

See also

• List of accidents and incidents involving commercial aircraft
• Thai Airways International Flight 311
• Garuda Indonesia Flight 152
• List of airplane accidents in Nepal
• Off-by-one error

References

1. Accident description at the Aviation Safety Network
2. Ranter, Harro. "Nepal air safety profile". aviation-safety.net. Aviation Safety Network. Retrieved 11 February 2019.
3. "Human Factors: Pakistan International Airlines Flight Pk 268". smhusain1's Blog. 24 May 2018. Retrieved 17 October 2019.
4. Gero, David (2000). Aviation Disasters: The World's Major Civil Airliner Crashes since 1950 (3rd ed.). Sparkford, nr. Yeovil, Somerset: Patrick Stephens (Haynes). p.  232. ISBN   9781852606022.
5. McGirk, Tim; Wolmar, Christian (1 October 1992). "Hunt goes on for black box in Airbus wreckage". The Independent . London. Archived from the original on 15 July 2015. Retrieved 17 September 2020.
6. Ranter, Harro. "ASN Aircraft accident Airbus A310-304 HS-TID Kathmandu-Tribhuvan Airport (KTM)". aviation-safety.net. Aviation Safety Network. Retrieved 11 February 2019.
7. "Pakistan International Airlines, Flight PK 268, an unknown mystery". Aviation Nepal. 28 July 2020.
8. "Airbus crash blamed on pilot error" . The Independent. 30 September 1992. Archived from the original on 24 May 2022. Retrieved 10 February 2018.
9. Khaliq, Fazal (17 October 2015). "PIA memorial park in Nepal honours 1992 air crash victims". Dawn.
10. "Air crash relatives arrive in Nepal" . The Independent. 2 October 1992. Archived from the original on 24 May 2022. Retrieved 10 February 2018.
11. "WMT" (PDF). WMT News (pdf). Autumn 2007. Archived from the original (PDF) on 10 May 2017. Retrieved 10 February 2016.
12. Pakistan International Airlines Flight 268 at IMDb

Further reading

• Job, Macarthur (1998). Air Disaster. Vol. 3. Aerospace Publications Pty. Ltd. (Australia). pp. 98–115. ISBN   1-875671-34-X.