Pakistan International Airlines Flight 705
| Pakistan International Airlines Flight 705 | |
|---|---|
 An identical Boeing 720B from Pakistan International Airlines |
|
| Accident summary | |
| Accident type | Controlled flight into terrain on approach |
| place | 20 kilometers south of Cairo International Airport , Egypt
|
| date | May 20, 1965 |
| Fatalities | 121 |
| Survivors | 6th |
| Injured | 6th |
| Aircraft | |
| Aircraft type |
 Boeing 720-040B
|
| operator |
 Pakistan International Airlines
|
| Mark |
AP-AMH
|
| Departure airport |
Karachi Airport , Pakistan
|
| 1. Stopover |
Dhahran Airport , Saudi Arabia.svg){kind=small}
|
| 2. Stopover |
Cairo International Airport , Egypt
|
| 3. Stopover |
Geneva Airport , Switzerland
|
| Destination airport |
London Heathrow Airport , UK
|
| Passengers | 114 |
| crew | 13 |
| Lists of aviation accidents | |
Pakistan International Airlines flight 705 (flight number: PK705 ) was a flight of the airline Pakistan International Airlines in which a Boeing 720B crashed on May 20, 1965 shortly before the stopover in Cairo . 121 of 127 people on board were killed in the controlled flight into the terrain . It is the worst incident involving the Boeing 720.
plane
The aircraft involved in the accident was a two and a half year old Boeing 720-040B, which made its first flight on October 19, 1962 and was newly delivered to Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) on November 7 of the same year and was registered with the aircraft registration AP-AMH . The Boeing 720 was a shortened version of the Boeing 707 with a modified wing structure. Modified in this way, it should be positioned on the market as a medium- haul aircraft.
The machine with the serial number 18379 was the 321st Boeing of the 707/720 series. The four-engine, medium - range narrow-body aircraft was equipped with four Pratt & Whitney JT3D-3B engines. By the time of the accident, the machine had completed 8,378 flight hours.
Course of the flight and course of the accident
The flight was supposed to run from the port city of Karachi in Pakistan to London in the United Kingdom . Among the 114 passengers were distinguished guests and journalists. Stopovers were in Saudi Dhahran , in Cairo and Geneva provided. When the aircraft was approaching Cairo International Airport, the crew reported problems with the landing flaps . A little later, the plane crashed southeast of the airport, broke apart and caught fire. In the impact, six passengers were thrown from the wreck, they were the only survivors. Among the dead was Chinese aircraft designer Huang Zhiqian , the chief designer of the Shenyang J-8 fighter jet .
Accident investigation
On May 26, the Egyptian police reported that in the rubble of a transistor radio was discovered in the jewelery worth 120,000 US dollars was installed.
The alleged cause of the accident was stated to be that the aircraft would not have maintained the adequate altitude for the holding pattern and would have been descending until it was finally flown into the ground . The cause of the descent is unknown, but a distraction of the crew due to the problem with the spoilers appears likely.
meaning
At the time, it was the worst aircraft accident for Pakistan International Airlines. After the crash of a Boeing 707 in Saudi Arabia on Pakistan International Airlines Flight 740 in 1979, it was the second worst since an Airbus A300 crashed in Nepal on Pakistan International Airlines Flight 268 in 1992 it is the third heaviest. Until Flash Airlines Flight 604 in 2004, it remained the worst aircraft accident in Egypt.