EgyptAir Flight 864

EgyptAir Flight 864 was a flight from Rome Fiumicino Airport to Tokyo International Airport, via Cairo, Bombay, and Bangkok. On 25 December 1976, the Boeing 707 crashed into an industrial complex in Bangkok. All 52 people on board were killed, plus 19 on the ground in the crash.[1]

EgyptAir Flight 864
A Boeing 707-320C of EgyptAir, similar to the accident aircraft
Accident
Date25 December 1976 (1976-12-25)
SummaryPilot error
SiteDon Mueang International Airport, Bangkok, Thailand
Total fatalities71
Aircraft
Aircraft typeBoeing 707-366C
OperatorEgyptAir
IATA flight No.MS864
ICAO flight No.MSR864
Call signEGYPTAIR 864
RegistrationSU-AXA
Flight originRome Fiumicino Airport, Italy
1st stopoverCairo International Airport, Egypt
2nd stopoverSantacruz Airport, India
Last stopoverDon Mueang International Airport, Thailand
DestinationTokyo International Airport, Japan
Occupants52
Passengers43
Crew9
Fatalities52
Survivors0
Ground casualties
Ground fatalities19

Aircraft

The aircraft was a Boeing 707-366C with the serial number 20763 and serial 871, that had its maiden flight on 25 August 1973. The aircraft was registered as SU-AXA and was delivered to EgyptAir, and entered service on 20 September the same year.[2] The aircraft was powered by Pratt & Whitney JT3D-7 turbofan engines.[1]

Accident

Flight 864 was a regularly scheduled international passenger flight from Rome to Tokyo with stopovers in Cairo, Bombay and Bangkok.[3] With 9 crew members and 44 passengers on board, flight 864 approached Bangkok. At 20:30 GMT (03:30 local time), the crew contacted the approach controller and reported about the distance of 33 nautical miles (61 km) from the airport’s radio beacon. At this time, conditions were reported as calm, with cloudiness from 2/8 to 4/8 at the lower border of 300 meters, air temperature of 25 °C at a dew point of 24°C, visibility of 4000 meters, and an airfield pressure of 1007 mB. Having received the radar vector to the “BK” DPRM, the crew began their approach to runway 21L. The crew reported their observations. The controller cleared the flight to land, and the crew acknowledged the transmission. Then at about 03:45, the aircraft crashed into a weaving mill building in an industrial area of the city, located 2 kilometers northeast of the end of runway 21L. The aircraft exploded on impact, and all 52 people on board were killed.[4] The weaving mill was also destroyed, with 19 people killed on the ground. The total number of victims was 71 people. At that time, the crash was the deadliest aviation disaster to occur in Thailand (it is now the sixth).[1]

Cause

Pilot error was determined to be the cause of the crash.[5] EgyptAir claimed that the Bangkok control tower had provided inadequate weather information to the crew of Flight 864.[6] The crew had also reduced the aircraft's vertical speed and did not monitor its height properly.[5][7]

References

  1. Accident description at the Aviation Safety Network
  2. "SU-AXA - Boeing 707-366C, MSN 20763" (in Russian). OneSpotter.com. Archived from the original on 3 September 2014. Retrieved 3 September 2014.
  3. "Crash of a Boeing 707 in Bangkok: 73 killed". B3A Aircraft Accidents Archives. Archived from the original on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 3 September 2014.
  4. "A Benefit Analysis for Cabin Water Spray Systems and Enhanced Fuselage Burnthrough Protection" (PDF). Safety Regulation Group. 7 April 2003. p. 72. Archived from the original (PDF) on 6 June 2011. Retrieved 3 September 2014.
  5. "Jetliner Crash in Bangkok in 1976 Is Officially Laid to Pilot Error". The New York Times. 14 May 1978.
  6. Gero, David (1996). Aviation Disasters Second Edition. Patrick Stephens Limited. p. 139.
  7. "Accident Synopsis". AirDisaster.com. Archived from the original on 3 September 2014. Retrieved 3 September 2014.CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)
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