Luxor – Cairo

On September 30, 1966 at 02:02 PM, Luxor – Cairo experienced a crash involving Antonov AN-24, operated by United Arab Airlines, with the event recorded near Cairo-Intl Cairo.

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

43 people were known to be on board, 0 fatalities were recorded, 43 survivors were identified or estimated. This corresponds to an estimated fatality rate of 0.0%.

Crew on board: 6, crew fatalities: 0, passengers on board: 37, passenger fatalities: 0, other fatalities: 0.

The listed crash cause is other causes. Flight 322 was a scheduled domestic flight from Cairo to Aswan and return with an intermediate stop at Luxor. It departed Cairo at 0700 hours GMT and the sectors Cairo - Luxor, Luxor - Aswan and Aswan - Luxor were uneventful. At 1128 hours the aircraft was ready for the last sector Luxor - Cairo and at 1130 hours it entered the second taxiway to Runway 20 at Luxor and shortly thereafter it was cleared for take-off. Instead of back-tracking on Runway 20 the pilot took off directly from the point he entered the runway, approximately 400 m from its threshold. During the take-off run the pilot-in-command and the co-pilot saw a camel entering the runway from east to west approximately 700 m in front of them. The speed of the aircraft at that time was about 160 km/h. In an attempt to avoid a collision with the camel, the pilot-in-command deviated the aircraft slightly to the right and took off as soon as he could; however, the right wheel struck the camel while the aircraft was about 2 m above the ground. The right landing gear bracing was broken by the impact and although several attempts to retract the undercarriage were made the right gear could not be retracted whilst the left and nose gears were locked in the "up" position. The pilot-in-command decided to complete the flight and to carry out a wheels-up landing at Cairo Airport where more ground facilities were available. He landed the aircraft wheels up at 1402 hours on a sand strip to the right of Runway 34 at Cairo Airport. There were no injuries among the 43 occupants while the aircraft was damaged beyond repair.

Aircraft reference details include registration SU-AOM, MSN 67302809, year of manufacture 1966.

Geospatial coordinates for this crash are approximately 30.1141°, 31.4245°.