Jeddah - Colombo - Surabaya

On November 15, 1978 at 11:30 PM, Jeddah - Colombo - Surabaya experienced a crash involving Douglas DC-8, operated by Loftleidir Icelandic Airlines, with the event recorded near Colombo-Bandaranaike Western Province (<U+0BAE><U+0BC7><U+0BB2><U+0BCD> <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 airport (less than 10 km from airport) crash site.

262 people were known to be on board, 183 fatalities were recorded, 79 survivors were identified or estimated. This corresponds to an estimated fatality rate of 69.8%.

Crew on board: 13, crew fatalities: 8, passengers on board: 249, passenger fatalities: 175, other fatalities: 0.

The listed crash cause is human factor. The four engine airplane was chartered by Garuda Indonesia Airways to fly back to Surabaya 249 Indonesian pilgrims who were returning home following a 'haj' in Mecca. Following an uneventful flight, the crew was cleared to descend from FL330 to FL220 then was informed that runway 04 was in use. The captain requested a runway 22 landing and was cleared for. On final approach by night, while at an altitude of 650 feet, the crew was cleared to land on runway 22, a clearance that was acknowledged by the crew. Few seconds later, the approach controller realized that the aircraft was too low and tried to contact the crew. Unfortunately, this was not possible as the crew already switched to the tower frequency. On short final, the airplane struck tree tops and crashed in a huge explosion in a coconut grove located 2,1 km short of runway 22 threshold. 79 occupants were rescued while 183 others were killed, among them eight crew members. The aircraft was totally destroyed by a post crash fire.

Aircraft reference details include registration TF-FLA, MSN 46020/415, year of manufacture 1968.