Madras – Tirupati – Hyderabad

On June 16, 1981 at 04:27 PM, Madras – Tirupati – Hyderabad experienced a crash involving Hindustan Aeronautics HAL-748, operated by Indian Airlines, with the event recorded near Tirupati Andhra Pradesh.

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.

28 people were known to be on board, 0 fatalities were recorded, 28 survivors were identified or estimated. This corresponds to an estimated fatality rate of 0.0%.

Crew on board: 4, crew fatalities: 0, passengers on board: 24, passenger fatalities: 0, other fatalities: 0.

The listed crash cause is weather. The aircraft crash landed immediately after takeoff about 1-1/2 km southwest of Tirupati Airport. Soon after takeoff, when the aircraft had attained a height of 245 feet above ground level, it encountered heavy rain and the aircraft started losing height with a drop in speed. As this phase of flight flaps were retracted fully inadvertently. In the following 18 seconds, the aircraft sank to ground level and struck the ground in a tail down attitude and crashed. Two crew members received serious injuries and two received minor injuries. The aircraft was damaged beyond repair.

Aircraft reference details include registration VT-DXI, MSN 514, year of manufacture 1968.

Geospatial coordinates for this crash are approximately 13.5514°, 80.0112°.