Iraqi Airways Flight 163

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Iraqi Airways Flight 163
YI-AGI (5697216956) (2) .jpg

The sister machine YI-AGI
Accident summary
Accident type Loss of control after a hand grenade exploded during a kidnapping attempt
place near Arar , Saudi ArabiaSaudi ArabiaSaudi Arabia 
date December 25, 1986
Fatalities 63
Survivors 43
Aircraft
Aircraft type United StatesUnited States Boeing 737-270C
operator Iraq 1963Iraq Iraqi Airways
Mark Iraq 1963Iraq YI-AGJ
Departure airport Baghdad Airport , IraqIraq 1963Iraq 
Destination airport Amman Airport , JordanJordanJordan 
Passengers 91
crew 15th
Lists of aviation accidents

The Iraqi Airways flight 163 (Flight number: IA163 ) is a scheduled flight from Baghdad airport in Iraq to Amman in Jordan . On December 25, 1986, a Boeing 737-270C crashed on this flight near Arar in Saudi Arabia after hijackers detonated a hand grenade on board the machine. 63 people died on board the machine in the incident. It is the worst incident in Iraqi Airways history.

plane

The aircraft involved in the accident was a Boeing 737-270C, which was 11 years old at the time of the accident. The final assembly of the aircraft was carried out at Boeing's plant in Renton , Washington, and made its maiden flight on January 15, 1976, before being delivered to Iraqi Airways eleven days later. The aircraft had the factory number 21183, it was the 446th Boeing 737 from ongoing production. The machine was certified with the aircraft registration YI-AGJ . The twin- engined narrow -body aircraft was equipped with two Pratt & Whitney JT8D-15 engines.

Crew and passengers

There was a 15-person crew on board, consisting of a master, a first officer, ten flight attendants and three flight safety attendants . 91 passengers had taken the scheduled flight IA163 from Baghdad to Amman in Jordan .

the accident

The take-off of the machine from Baghdad airport and the climb went initially without any special incidents. When the machine had been in the air for 55 minutes and entered the airspace of Saudi Arabia at an altitude of 26,000 feet, four kidnappers suddenly jumped up and tried to get to the cockpit. One of the kidnappers, who had been sitting in economy class, was seen running towards the cockpit armed with a hand grenade . Three flight safety attendants from Iraqi Airways also ran towards the cockpit and tried to get the situation under control. An exchange of fire ensued in which around 100 shots were fired within four to five minutes. In the next moment, a hijacker who was shot and injured threw a hand grenade into the passenger cabin. The pilots immediately initiated an emergency descent . When the machine was at an altitude of 16,000 feet (approximately 5,000 meters), another hand grenade exploded near the cockpit. The passenger cabin was clouded by black smoke. The pilots could hardly control the machine now. They steered the Boeing through the airspace of northern Saudi Arabia for another 20 minutes and tried to make an emergency landing at Arar Airport in Saudi Arabia. However, the machine rolled over the runway by 800 meters, broke in two parts and caught fire.

Victim

63 people died in the event, including three crew members. Of the four kidnappers, one died in the accident, two were shot by security guards, and one survived. Former Jordanian Interior Minister Suleiman Aarar was among the survivors. The course of events on board could essentially be reconstructed through testimony.

Originator

After the fact, various media offices received a number of calls to confess them. The callers each committed themselves to the Organization of Islamic Jihad and to groups such as “Organization of Revolutionary Justice” and “Revolutionary Workers' Organization”, some of which had not been known by name up to this point in time. On behalf of Hezbollah , an alleged confessor declared: “Allah is great. Down with the Iraqi tyrant Saddam Hussein. We tried to get control of the machine because there were agents of the Iraqi tyrant on board. "

Iraq blamed Iran for the attack, which the Iranian government denied. Evidence indicated that the militant Shiite Hezbollah from Lebanon was the author , supported by the Shiite clerical government of Iran. The CIA was able to identify one of the attackers as the Lebanese Ribal Khalil Jallul. His passport photo matched a Hezbollah martyr poster seen near a mosque in Beirut .

Flight number

Although the flight is the worst accident in Iraqi Airways history, the airline did not change the flight number after the accident, as is often done in commercial aviation. As of August 2019, the flight connection between Baghdad and Amman will still be operated under the flight number IA163.

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