1968 aviation accident in India
Garuda Indonesian Airways Flight 892 was a scheduled international passenger flight of Garuda Indonesian Airways (now Garuda Indonesia) from Jakarta to Amsterdam with stopovers in Singapore, Bangkok, Bombay (now Mumbai), Karachi, Cairo, and Rome. On 28 May 1968, the Convair 990A jet airliner operating the flight crashed during the climb-out after take-off from Santacruz Airport (now Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport) for the flight's Bombay to Karachi segment. The aircraft crashed at Bilalpada village near Nala Sopara, killing all 29 people on board and one person on the ground.
Flight history.
Flight 892 arrived at Santacruz Airport in Bombay at 01:45 a.m. local time (08:15 p.m. UTC 27 May). Having originated from Jakarta at 06:00 p.m. local time (11:00 a.m. UTC) the previous evening with preceding stopovers in Singapore and Bangkok, the flight was part of the airline's Jakarta to Amsterdam milk run service with stopovers in Singapore, Bangkok, Bombay, Karachi, Cairo, and Rome.
The stopover in Bombay was to offload and pick up passengers, change the operating crew, and refuel the aircraft before proceeding with the flight's next segment to Karachi and onwards until Amsterdam. Eleven passengers were supposed to board the flight in Bombay, but a last-minute cancellation by five passengers reduced the number to six. Weather conditions were normal at Santacruz Airport at the time of the flight's departure from Bombay, with 15 passengers and 14 crew on board.
Accident.
The aircraft took off from Santacruz Airport at 02:32 a.m. local time (09:02 p.m. UTC 27 May). Seven minutes later, the air traffic control at Santacruz Airport lost contact with the aircraft. The area control centre in Karachi, which had made contact as the aircraft departed from Bombay, reported that they also lost contact with the aircraft. No distress calls were received before contact with the aircraft was lost.
The aircraft was then reported to have crashed about five minutes after the contact was lost, with the approximate crash site location to the east of Nalla Sopara railway station at the village of Bilalpada. The resultant explosion as the aircraft crashed into the ground caused at least one large piece of the aircraft's debris to carve a crater of deep at the crash site, while most of the aircraft's debris was strewn over an area of almost wide.
All 29 people on board the aircraft died in the crash that marked the first fatal accident involving a Convair 990, as well as the type's second hull loss. Seventeen people at Bilalpada village were injured, two of whom were in serious condition. Three villagers had to get hospitalised; one was later pronounced dead. Besides human casualties, the crash destroyed several villagers' huts and a school shed. Moreover, some of the burning debris from the aircraft hit and set ablaze a stable, killing 19 buffaloes.
Aircraft.
The aircraft involved in the accident was a Convair 990A jet airliner powered by four General Electric CJ805-23B turbofan engines with registration PK-GJA. The 1960-built aircraft had serial number 30-10-3 and was initially destined for American Airlines. Formerly used as a static experimental aircraft for Convair 990 type certification, the aircraft was converted to the Convair 990A variant afterwards. Garuda Indonesian Airways took delivery of the aircraft on 24 January 1964 as the last of three on order, with an airworthiness certificate valid through 30 January 1969. The 99-seater passenger aircraft was named "Pajajaran" after the capital city of the Sunda Kingdom.
On 17 September 1966, the aircraft was involved in a ground incident at Amsterdam Airport Schiphol, which resulted in a broken nose cone. The aircraft was repaired and returned to service until it last logged about 8,900 airframe hours. The aircraft was also under Lloyd's of London insurance for ().
Crew.
A total of 14 crew members, all from Indonesia, were on board the flight. Ten were the operating crew, consisting of four cockpit crew and six cabin crew, while the remaining four were deadheading crew. The cockpit crew members were pilot-in-command Captain Abdul Rochim, co-pilot Captain Rudy Suhardono Harsono, Flight Navigator R. Henk Kusumo Asmoro, and Flight Engineer Slamet Djumadi. The pilot-in-command joined the airline upon graduating from Air Service Training in 1954 and had clocked 11,392 flight hours. Of the cabin crew members, the chief purser was the youngest sibling of A. Y. Mokoginta, the then-Indonesian Ambassador to the United Arab Republic (now Egypt).
All ten operating crew members were in Bombay after working on a flight that arrived there days earlier. They were then due to be on duty on a flight returning to Jakarta on 27 May. However, prolonged delays with the Jakarta-bound flight resulted in their reassignment to Flight 892 on the segments between Bombay and Cairo. The four deadheading crew members, on the other hand, boarded the flight in Jakarta and would remain on board until Karachi.
Passengers.
There were 15 passengers on board Flight 892's Bombay to Karachi segment. Of the departure cities, six passengers boarded the flight in Jakarta, three in Bangkok, and six in Bombay. Of the destination cities, six passengers would disembark the flight in Karachi, two each in Cairo and Rome, and five in Amsterdam. Six passengers were from Indonesia, four from Pakistan, two from Greece, and one each was from India, Japan, and the Netherlands.
Among the six passengers from Indonesia was an official of Indonesia's National Atomic Energy Agency, whose husband was G. A. Siwabessy, the then-Indonesian Minister of Health. An Indonesian Navy officer who also served as an adjutant for R. Soebijakto, the then-First Deputy of Indonesia's Department of Defense and Security, was also on board. The sole passenger from India was the then-president of the Institution of Engineers (India), who also served as the vice-president of the International Federation for Pre-stressed Concrete. The sole passenger from Japan was a section chief at Dai-ichi Life. In addition, the sole passenger from the Netherlands was a Dutch leader of the Moral Re-Armament.
Aftermath.
The day following the accident, Garuda Indonesian Airways grounded the remaining two Convair 990A aircraft in its fleet and suspended the Jakarta to Amsterdam and vice versa milk run service. The latter would later get reinstated, but the operating aircraft for the flight got replaced by the Douglas DC-8 on lease from KLM. The two Convair 990A aircraft were relegated to flying on Indonesian domestic and Asian international routes until the airline phased out the type in 1973.
The Government of Indonesia assisted in repatriating the bodies of all Indonesian victims of the accident. Inside each coffin of the Indonesian victims, stones collected from the crash site were also placed. Most of the occupant victims were buried in public cemeteries, while the wife of the health minister, the Navy officer, and nine of the 14 crew members were buried at Kalibata Heroes' Cemetery.
Garuda Indonesian Airways stated that the next-of-kin of Indonesian passengers whose tickets for the flight were issued in Indonesia were entitled to compensation under the Warsaw Convention, which was () per passenger, and insurance payout of (). For the next-of-kin of the Indian passenger, a Bombay High Court report noted the airline also paid ().
In 1969, the Institution of Engineers (India) established an engineering paper memorial prize named after the late president. A year later, an Indonesian orchid breeder registered a new "Dendrobium" hybridisation named after the late wife of the health minister.
Investigation.
In the hours after the accident, representatives from the Indian Directorate General of Civil Aviation visited the crash site and conducted a preliminary investigation. A joint team from Indonesia, which included representatives from the Indonesian Directorate of Civil Aviation and Garuda Indonesian Airways, was also despatched to Bombay to join the investigation. Led by Karno Barkah of the Indonesian Directorate of Civil Aviation, the team arrived in Bombay the following day.
The cause of the accident remains unknown to date, although there was an official court of inquiry in India to determine it. The court of inquiry was chaired by Y. S. Tambe, a retired Chief Justice of the Bombay High Court, with accredited representatives from the governments of India, Indonesia, and the United States, and the accident report reportedly was expected in January 1970. The aircraft's flight recorder, the search for which lasted for 19 days, has also never been found.
However, a source citing the investigation noted that the jet airliner was presumed to have been refuelled with avgas instead of kerosene-based avtur during the stopover in Bombay. The misfuelling was alleged to have caused all of the aircraft's four engines to suffer a partial or total failure during the climb-out, causing the pilots to lose control of the aircraft. The aircraft then entered a nosedive until it crashed in an almost vertical attitude.
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