London – Frankfurt – Beirut – Tehran – Kandahar – Kabul

On November 21, 1959 at 12:00 AM, London – Frankfurt – Beirut – Tehran – Kandahar – Kabul experienced a crash involving Douglas DC-4, operated by Ariana Afghan Airlines, with the event recorded near Beirut Beirut Governorate.

The flight was categorized as scheduled revenue flight and the reported phase was takeoff (climb) at a airport (less than 10 km from airport) crash site.

27 people were known to be on board, 24 fatalities were recorded, 3 survivors were identified or estimated. This corresponds to an estimated fatality rate of 88.9%.

Crew on board: 5, crew fatalities: 5, passengers on board: 22, passenger fatalities: 19, other fatalities: 0.

The listed crash cause is human factor. The aircraft was performing a flight from London to Kabul with several intermediate stops. The stopover at Beirut was longer than expected because few technical issues were noted after the airplane landed from Frankfurt. The departure from Beirut was postponed for 20 hours. Two minutes after departure from runway 18, while climbing, the airplane struck the slope of Mt Aramoun located about 5 km south of the airfield and burst into flames. Three passengers were seriously injured while all 24 other occupants were killed.

Aircraft reference details include registration YA-BAG, MSN 18367, year of manufacture 1944.

Geospatial coordinates for this crash are approximately 33.8919°, 35.5109°.