United Arab Airlines Flight 749
Nicosia Airport, Nicosia , Cyprus | |
Destination | Cairo International Airport, Cairo, Egypt |
---|---|
Occupants | 30 |
Passengers | 25 |
Crew | 5 |
Fatalities | 30 |
Survivors | 0 |
United Arab Airlines Flight 749 was a scheduled international passenger flight on 18 March 1966 that crashed while attempting to land in Cairo, Egypt. All thirty passengers and crew on board were killed.
Crash
Flight 749 took off from
After the crash, the sandstorm hampered rescue operations. Visibility was near zero and rescue vehicles became bogged down in the drifting sands.[1][2]
Investigation
Accident investigators determined that "the accident arose from the descent of the aircraft below the safe flight altitude in the final approach and the impact of the port wing against the sand dunes lying to the northeast of the aerodrome. As a result the pilot lost control of his aircraft and hit the ground.
It is probable that the cause of descent of the aircraft below the safe level was due to the change from IFR to VFR, taking into consideration that considerable time would have been needed for the pilot to have adapted to this change in the prevailing weather conditions."[3]
See also
- Stavropolskaya Aktsionernaya Avia Flight 1023, another aviation disaster involving an Antonov An-24 which took place exactly 31 years after Flight 749.
References
External links