Turkish Airlines Flight 452
Turkish Airlines Flight 452 was a scheduled domestic passenger flight from Istanbul Atatürk Airport to Antalya Airport, Turkey. On 19 September 1976, the Boeing 727-200 operating the flight struck a slope of a hill at Karatepe in Isparta Province, 60 mi (97 km) north of the destination airport due to a pilot error on approach resulting in the death of all 154 people on board. To date, the crash is the deadliest aviation accident to occur in Turkey.[1]
 A Turkish Airlines Boeing 727, similar to the aircraft involved in the accident | |
| Accident | |
|---|---|
| Date | 19 September 1976 |
| Summary | Controlled flight into terrain due to pilot error |
| Site | Karatepe, Isparta, Turkey 37.89165°N 30.50114°E |
| Aircraft | |
| Aircraft type | Boeing 727-200 |
| Aircraft name | Antalya |
| Operator | Turkish Airlines |
| Registration | TC-JBH |
| Flight origin | Istanbul Atatürk Airport, Turkey |
| Destination | Antalya Airport, Turkey |
| Occupants | 154 |
| Passengers | 146 |
| Crew | 8 |
| Fatalities | 154 |
| Survivors | 0 |
Background
The Boeing 727-200 was built in 1974 with serial number 20982 and was equipped with three Pratt & Whitney JT8D-15 turbofan engines.[1][2] Flight 452 was carrying 146 passengers and 8 crew members. The captain was Celal Topçuoğlu, the first officer was Sacit Soğangöz, and the flight engineer was Ahmet Bursali.[3][4][5]
Accident
Flight 452 departed Istanbul Atatürk Airport at 22:45 Eastern European Time (EET) (20:45 UTC) for the one-hour flight to Antalya Airport in southern Turkey. At 23:11 EET, the first officer called the control tower at Antalya Airport to report that they had the runway lights in sight, even though the aircraft was actually still flying over Isparta, well to the north of Antalya. He requested an approach directly to Runway 36 (facing north) and immediately started to descend for final approach under visual flight rules instead of instrument flight rules without waiting for the clearance by the air traffic controller (ATC). The ATC asked the aircraft where it was going to land and warned that it was not in the region yet and it could neither be seen on the radar screen nor by naked eye. Seeing the lights of a 4,000-metre (13,000 ft) long straight highway north of Isparta city, the first officer responded that he believed his own eyes, but mistook it for the runway.[1]
As the aircraft was at 150 metres (490 ft), the captain returned to the cockpit and became aware that the aircraft was descending onto a highway with truck traffic on it. He initiated a sudden climb with full power. However, the heavily loaded aircraft struck the slope of a hill at Karatepe with its right wing and crashed.[4]
See also
- Air Bagan Flight 11, another aviation disaster where a pilot mistook a road for a runway and attempted a premature landing.
- Atlasjet Flight 4203, the flight collided with a hill under similar circumstances a few kilometres away from the crash.
References
- Ranter, Harro. "Aircraft accident Boeing 727-2F2 TC-JBH Isparta". aviation-safety.net. Aviation Safety Network. Retrieved 2009-09-27.
- "Accident Synopsis". Airdisaster.com. Archived from the original on 2009-01-03. Retrieved 2020-11-09.CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)
- "THY Uçakları Nostalji Ve Hatıralar" [THY Aircraft Nostalgia and Memories]. wowturkey.com (in Turkish). Retrieved 2020-11-09.
- "BUGÜN KARATEPE'YE ÇARPARAK DÜŞEN THY B-727 UÇAĞIMIZIN 39. YILDÖNÜMÜ" [39th ANNIVERSARY OF THY B-727 FLIGHT THAT HITS TO KARATEPE TODAY]. airlinehaber.com (in Turkish). 2015-09-19. Archived from the original on 2015-09-26. Retrieved 2016-08-26.
- "1976 Isparta Kazası – Görgü Tanığı Anlatıyor" [1976 Isparta Accident - Eyewitness Tells]. Göklerdeyiz Havacılık Sitesi (in Turkish). Retrieved 2020-11-09.