Bahawalpur - Islamabad

On August 17, 1988 at 04:30 PM, Bahawalpur - Islamabad experienced a crash involving Lockheed C-130 Hercules, operated by Pakistan Air Force - Pakistan Fiza'ya, with the event recorded near Bahawalpur Punjab (<U+067E><U+0646><U+062C><U+0627><U+0628>).

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

30 people were known to be on board, 30 fatalities were recorded, 0 survivors were identified or estimated. This corresponds to an estimated fatality rate of 100.0%.

Crew on board: 4, crew fatalities: 4, passengers on board: 26, passenger fatalities: 26, other fatalities: 0.

The listed crash cause is technical failure. Shortly after takeoff from Bahawalpur Airport, while in initial climb, the four engine aircraft went out of control and crashed 7 km from the airport. All 30 occupants were killed, among them Muhammad Zia Ul-Haq, President of the Republic of Pakistan, chairman Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee General Akhtar Abdur Rahman, Brigadier Siddique Salik, several high ranking officers of the Pakistan Army and also the American Ambassador to Pakistan Arnold Lewis Raphel. They were returning to Islamabad following a US M1 Abrams tank demonstration in Bahawalpur.

Aircraft reference details include registration 23494, MSN 3708, year of manufacture 1962.