1996 Charkhi Dadri mid-air collision

The 1996 Charkhi Dadri mid-air collision occurred on 12 November 1996 when Saudi Arabian Airlines Flight 763 (SVA 763), a Boeing 747-168B en route from New Delhi, India, to Dhahran, Saudi Arabia, collided in mid-air with Kazakhstan Airlines Flight 1907 (KZK 1907), an Ilyushin Il-76 en route from Shymkent, Kazakhstan, to New Delhi, over the village of Charkhi Dadri, Haryana, India. All 349 people on board both flights were killed, making it the deadliest mid-air collision in the history of aviation.

History and cause

Flight SVA 763 departed Delhi at 6:32 PM local time. Flight KZK 1907 was, at the same time, descending to land at Delhi. Both flights were controlled by approach controller VK Dutta. The crew of flight 763 consisted of captain Khalid Al Shoubaili, first officer Nazir Khan, and flight engineer Evris. On Flight KZK 1907, Gennadi Cherepanov served as the pilot and Yegor Repp served as the radio operator."," The New York Times

Flight KZK 1907 was cleared to descend to when from the airport while Flight SVA 763, traveling on the same airway as Flight KZK 1907 but in the opposite direction, was cleared to climb to . About eight minutes later, around 6:40 PM, Flight KZK 1907 reported having reached its assigned altitude of but it was actually lower, at , and still descending. At this time, Dutta advised the flight, "Identified traffic 12...
Read More