Surabaya - Colombo - Jeddah

On December 4, 1974 at 10:11 PM, Surabaya - Colombo - Jeddah experienced a crash involving Douglas DC-8, operated by Martinair Holland, with the event recorded near Maskeliya Central Province (<U+0BAE><U+0BA4><U+0BCD><U+0BA4><U+0BBF><U+0BAF> <U+0BAE><U+0BBE><U+0B95><U+0BBE><U+0BA3><U+0BAE><U+0BCD>).

The flight was categorized as charter/taxi (non scheduled revenue flight) and the reported phase was landing (descent or approach) at a mountains crash site.

191 people were known to be on board, 191 fatalities were recorded, 0 survivors were identified or estimated. This corresponds to an estimated fatality rate of 100.0%.

Crew on board: 9, crew fatalities: 9, passengers on board: 182, passenger fatalities: 182, other fatalities: 0.

The listed crash cause is human factor. The airplane was completing a charter flight (hadj flight) from Surabaya to Jeddah with an intermediate stop in Colombo, carrying 182 Indonesian pilgrims on behalf of Garuda Indonesian Airways, and a crew of nine (seven Dutch citizens and two Indonesian). The descent to Colombo-Bandaranaike Airport was initiated by night and marginal weather conditions. The crew was cleared to descent to 5,000 feet and must report once the altitude of 8,000 feet was reached on descent. Then the crew was cleared to descent to 2,000 feet in view of a landing on runway 04. In poor visibility, the airplane struck the slope of Mt Anjimalai located about 85 km southeast of Bandaranaike Airport, near the city of Maskeliya. The wreckage was found few hours later in a quite unreachable area. The aircraft was totally destroyed and all 191 occupants have been killed.

Aircraft reference details include registration PH-MBH, MSN 45818/242, year of manufacture 1966.