Royal Jordanian Airlines - ALIA

Boeing 727-200

Flight Royal Jordanian 600 departed Amman for a flight to Doha and Muscat. With the first officer as the handling pilot the aircraft, called "The City of Petra", left Amman at 21:55. Contact was established with Doha at 23:08 at a range of 45 miles when weather information was received, which included: wind 090° at 17 knots, visibility 10 km in thunderstorms, 1/8 CS at 2500 feet, 3/8 at 3000 feet, and QNH 1008. The controller added that the thunderstorm appeared to be building up over and to the north west of the airfield. The pilot requested runway 16 and was cleared for a visual approach to that runway or for a NDB/VOR approach if visual contact with the airfield was not established. The aircraft reported approaching the overhead position for a NDB/VOR procedure at 23:17. On the airfield rain was falling quite heavily and the controller informed the aircraft of this. The NDB then tripped, presumably as a result of a lightning strike but was back in the air again at 23:22. At 23:25 the aircraft reported procedure turn complete and was cleared to land. At 23:29 the aircraft reported that it had not seen the runway, and initiated a missed approach, requesting and receiving clearance to make an ILS approach to runway 34. At 23:30 a wind was reported 290°/14 knots in heavy rain. At 23:35 the aircraft reported procedure turn complete and field in sight. Landing clearance was given with a wind of 180°/06 kt. During the next 2 minutes of the final approach the controller reported winds of 150° at 13 kt, 150° at 15 kt, and 140° at 17 knots. Because of the increasing tail wind component and difficulties in maintaining the glide slope the crew decided before reaching decision height, that a missed approach was necessary and this was initiated at 23:37:19 at a height of about 300 feet agl. The pilot then requested clearance to Dhahran and the controller cleared the aircraft to climb straight ahead to FL 80. Go around power was applied and 25° flaps was selected, the undercarriage was raised. The aircraft climbed to 750 feet with the indicated airspeed falling to approximately 140 knots. The aircraft then began to descend at an increasing rate until it struck the ground with a vertical speed of 4200 ft/min., with the IAS increasing rapidly to approximately 170 kt in the last 5 seconds. The aircraft struck the left hand edge of the runway, 2050 m from the threshold with the nose approximately 10° above the horizon and with the left wing 5° down. The aircraft bounced off the first impact and turning left, rolled to the right to an inverted position and then slid, tail first, into the Fire Station garage some 800 m from the first impact point and 270 m from the runway edge. The fuselage broke into three main sections during the process. Four crew members and 41 passengers were killed while 19 other occupants were injured.

Boeing 707

On behalf of Royal Air Maroc, the aircraft was completing a charter flight from Paris-Le Bourget to Agadir, carrying 181 Moroccan workers and their family members back for holidays. Following an uneventful flight, the crew contacted ATC and was cleared to start the descent. At an altitude of 2,400 feet, the right wing struck a rocky peak. On impact, the engine n°4 was torn off. The crew increased engine power and the airplane flew for about 400 meters before it disintegrated in a small valley. The wreckage was found few hours later about 40 km north of Agadir-Inezgane Airport. None of the 188 occupants survived the crash.

Boeing 707

The aircraft was completing a charter flight from Jeddah to Lagos on behalf of Nigeria Airways, carrying Nigerian pilgrims flying back home. En route, the crew was informed about bad weather in Lagos and was rerouted to Kano-Mallam Aminu Kano Airport. On final approach, the pilot-in-command encountered mist when during the last segment, control was lost. The airplane nosed down and struck the runway surface with its nose gear first. On impact, the nose gear collapsed then both main gears touched the ground and punctured the fuel tanks. Out of control, the airplane skidded on runway, lost its both left engines then made a 180 turn before coming to rest in flames. Three crew members and 23 passengers were rescued while 176 other occupants were killed. The aircraft was totally destroyed by a post crash fire. Up to date, this was the worst plane crash in History.

Handley Page HPR-7 Dart Herald

The aircraft took off from Beirut International Airport, Lebanon, at 1955 hours GMT on a non-scheduled international flight to Amman, Jordan. The aircraft was cleared to climb to and maintain FL 135 according to the flight plan submitted. At 2014 hours the aircraft reported to Damascus Centre over Dakweh at FL 120 climbing to FL 135 and estimating Damascus beacon at 2019 hours. The aircraft having not reported over that beacon by 2020 hours, the Damascus Centre controller initiated a series of calls which were not answered by the aircraft. At 2035 hours, a telephone call indicated that an aircraft flying west to east was seen on fire and had crashed half-way between the Syrian border and Damascus. It was subsequently found that this was the subject aircraft, and that it had crashed at approximately 2016 hours on a 45° slope of a mountain at a height of 4 200 ft AMSL on a heading of 340°. The aircraft was totally destroyed and all 54 occupants have been killed.