PIA Flight 268

Infobox Airliner accident|name=PIA Flight 268
Crash
Image_caption=Tail_section_of_PIA_A300
Date=September 28, 1992
Type=Controlled flight into terrain
Site=Kathmandu, Nepal
Fatalities= 167
Injuries= 0
Aircraft Type= Airbus A300B4-203
Operator= Pakistan International Airlines
Tail Number=airreg|AP|BCP|disaster
Passengers=155
Crew=12
Survivors = 0

Pakistan International Airlines Flight 268 was an Airbus A300B4-203, registration AP-BCP, which crashed on approach to Kathmandu's Tribhuvan International Airport on September 28, 1992. All 167 on board were killed.

Flight 268 departed Karachi at 11:13 AM Pakistan Standard Time for Kathmandu. Upon contacting Nepalese air traffic control, the aircraft was cleared for an approach from the south called the "Sierra approach". An aircraft cleared to use this approach was at the time directed to pass over a reporting point called "Romeo" located 41 miles south of the Kathmandu VOR (or at "41 DME") at an altitude of 15,000 feet. The aircraft was to then descend in seven steps to 5,800 feet, passing over a reporting point known as "Sierra" located at 10 DME at an altitude of 9,500 feet, before landing at Kathmandu. This approach allowed aircraft to pass over the Chure Hills directly south of Kathmandu (the crest of which is located just north of the Sierra reporting point) at a safe altitude.

Although no pertinent flight deck conversation was recovered from Flight 268's cockpit voice recorder by investigators with the Transportation Safety Board of Canada (TSB), which assisted with the investigation, data recovered from the flight data recorder by the TSB showed that the aircraft initiated each step of its descent one step too early. At 16 DME the aircraft was a full 1,000 feet below its cleared altitude; at 10 DME (the Sierra reporting point) it was 1,300 feet below its cleared altitude. Additionally, although the pilots of Flight 268 reported their aircraft's altitude accurately to air traffic control, controllers did nothing to alert them as to their inappropriate altitude until seconds before the accident. The aircraft approached the Chure Hills at an altitude insufficient to pass them and crashed into the south slope, killing all aboard.

Investigators determined that the accident had been caused mainly by pilot error. However, it was also determined that the approach plates for Kathmandu issued to PIA pilots were unclear and poorly reproduced, and that Nepalese air traffic controllers were timid and reluctant to intervene in what they saw as piloting matters such as terrain separation.

This accident occurred just 59 days after Thai Airways International Flight 311 crashed north of Kathmandu. This allowed the Canadian TSB officials who had traveled to Nepal to assist with the Flight 311 investigation to also work on the Flight 268 investigation concurrently, and allowed Nepalese authorities to release reports on both accidents quickly.

ee also

* American Airlines Flight 965, which also crashed into hillside while on approach
* Lists of accidents and incidents on commercial airliners
* Air safety
* Controlled flight into terrain

References and external links

* [http://aviation-safety.net/database/record.php?id=19920928-0 PIA Flight 268] at the Aviation Safety Network Database
*"Air Disaster, Vol. 3", by Macarthur Job, Aerospace Publications Pty. Ltd. (Australia), 1998 ISBN 1-875671-34-X, pp. 98-115.