Crashing an Airbus A300 in the Himalayas | Nepal’s Worst Disaster 

Not having a radar on an airport surrounded by mountains is recipe for disaster and stupid. the Nepalese authorities blamed the pilots for error but refused to accept their controllers were completely at fault for not checking on it.

“Weak self esteem” sounds like a euphemism for a toxic work environment in which the controllers were bullied and/or threatened if they challenged a pilot.

Not having a radar at a mountainous airport is a recipe for disaster

If the ATC had "weak self-esteem" before this accident, how did he live with himself after contributing to this disaster?!? After the pilot stated altitude of 8,200...ATC should have told him he was too low.

"It was discovered that some air controllers in Kathmandu had weak self-esteem and were hesitant to participate in piloting issues such as terrain separation" WTF?

"Weak self esteem" being used as a substitute for fatal ability to do one's job is something I'll have to remember during my next performance review. "You see, boss, it was due to my weak self esteem."

10:12 "The approach charts issued to pilots were unclear" Well, that's a map of the Great Lakes. So if we're using that to land in Nepal, we may have uncovered a part of the issue.

Aircraft crashes into a moutain: Investigators conclude it was flying too low. They're good!

I lost a close friend and several acquaintances on this flight. Remember watching the morning news whilst receiving phone calls confirming that he was lost. There isn’t a single flight that I’ve taken that doesn’t remind me. This was to have been a trip if a lifetime for a group of outdoor pursuits enthusiasts. He is still fondly remembered by colleagues and ex students alike. Outside the college their is a cairn to match the one in Kathmandu.

One of the reasons aircraft are now equipped with EGPWS, instead of just GPWS, enhanced with a navigation database combined with the radio-altimeters to "see" the steep terrain ahead, not just the actual AGL of the aircraft.

Absence of radar+non-existent GPWS+controllers lacking self-esteem+problems with the charts+difficult approach=recipe for disaster and my blood running cold. Absolutely heartbreaking.

This accident was very sad indeed. "Terrain Terrain"!! has got to be a shocking word for any pilot. Love your channel and the respect given. Rest in Peace all 167 souls PIA 268

Sadly, you just CAN'T make a 1,000' mistake in the Himalayas! A step-down into a slam-dunk airport is bad enough, there's just no room for error anywhere around that airport. The "weak esteem" of ground control is NO EXCUSE, especially around Nepal or Kathmandu, so very tragic, RIP to all souls on board.

Iftikhar janjua's son , Saleh janjua died also near Islamabad in 2016 while flying an ATR 42 operating flight PK661

Poor self esteem? Aww, I hope they get some coaching to give them confidence to keep airplanes from crashing.🤦

I wonder what went on in the passenger cabin. How many saw through the window the terrain approaching, how many didn't, if any of the ones who saw it alerted the others about it or barely had time to move themselves out of that initial paralyzing shock in disbelief, etc. One thing seems to be certain. It was a quick one. Even the ones who saw the terrain coming didn't have much time to get desperate. The crash was violent and quick. No suffering.

Mountains, mountains everywhere. It just seems inevitable that these crashes will happen.

Weak Self-Esteem? WTF is that?

First time I've heard of an accident causality include "low self-esteem". Huh?

No radar at such a mountainous location is ludicrous, and a disaster just waiting to happen.

When a plane is approaching a mountainous area near an airport, it seems everyone involved should be particularly sensitive to altitude readings... double and triple check. I was almost going to ask if this airport should be there at all - but then it dawned on me that hundreds, or maybe thousands, of other flights must have made it safely down. So I guess this was a rare event.

This reminds me of American Airlines flight 965 which was a Boeing 757 that crashed into a mountain in Colombia while the pilots thought they were on approach to Cali. May all victims RIP. ❤️❤️🙏🙏 Great job as usual.

Amazing how simply putting your thumb over a part of a chart can cause an accident and this was nearly two months after Thai Airways Flight 311 crashed near the same airport claiming 113 lives. The wreckage of Flight 311 is still at the Langtang National Park where it crashed.

A well-produced video as usual, TFC. Keep up the good work.

Wow so tragic, so needless a loss ! The history & progress of Air Safety are truly written in blood ! I pray we all fly safer while gratefully acknowledging our debt to these earlier victims - this crash being 30 years ago now. God Almighty rest the 167 Souls in peace !

Having learnt about this disaster and the previous Thai flight 311 it makes my blood run cold that Kathmandu airport should have been allowed to operate at all and that any airline from any country should have considered landing there. It was badly equipped and staffed by inadequately trained and temperamentally unsuitable ATC. It should have been shut down completely after flight 311.

I seen another video involving another airplane crashed in Nepal. Its Thai Airway 311 and there was no ground radar to help them at the airport. They were confused in the thick fog and the ATC was inexprienced plus no radar again. It happened in 31 July 1992. Then this happened few months later, same year. Surprise it took 2 plane crash for some improvement to happen.

I don't think I'll be flying to Nepal anytime in the near or distant future! Thank you for another fantastic episode, TFC! You are the best channel here! You are concise and to the point without being overly dramatic. You make my Thursdays a pleasure! I've flown an A300, to England, back in '09. Absolutely awful plane! So uncomfortable! At least this year, I'll be flying a 330. I understand they're much more comfortable. Plus, I'm splashing out for first class, so I'll even have a bed to sleep in! That's quite swish! I'm spending the summer in England, but I wouldn't dream of missing an episode of your show! I love how educational it is, without beating you over the head with it.

This highlights how brilliant World War Two pilots truly were, nothing but basic flight instruments and everything was manually operated.

Wish that the video was a little slower in moving the text. Hard to keep up when you get a little older as eyes don't move so fast. Tried to pause at each change but screen dims making reading harder. Love the channel as this was just a suggestion for us older pilots

1. Lack of radar....I'm assuming and pretty much hoping Kathmandu airport has it now fixed and covered since it is a popular destination 2. WTAF is low self esteem? Aren't ATC Staff meant to be competent enough to engage in a reasonable dialogue that sees a flight land without complication? 3. Thank goodness and the wider Aviation Industry for the lessons it keeps learning from these 'never incidents' 4. Once again, top notch depiction, top notch description and full marks for the freshness of the video, even though I missed that sad old post accident music . 5. RIP to all those innocent souls on board. And to anyone else who perishes in travel.

I think I saw an episode on the Smithsonian channel called Air disasters about this crash. If I remember correctly the pilot had his thumb over the first altitude level he was suppose to descend to. That made him a step ahead.

One of my favorite channels!! Keep up the great work!! 😎👊🤙

The music you use is so chilling, sombering. Very good.

Whenever I watch a new video of TheFlightChannel I wonder whether it will be a "pilot error" or "a faulty aircraft", it's always got to be one of those two.

I suppose there are some pilots who have so many flight hours, they get comfortable and complacent.

I was waiting for this video !! Thank You !! I am from Kathmandu, Nepal where the Airbus A300 Crashed, RIP All the people on board.

Very disappointing that today 15/1/23 another disaster happened in Nepal, may God bless the souls 😔

Thanks.I was well aware of this crash, I flew into Kathmandu just a few weeks later on a PIA flight, I had already booked and paid for the flight ticket before the crash, I was very nervous, flew into Lukla the next day, so it was a very worrying time. I have since flown into Kathmandu, and Lukla on 4 more occasions, but never flew PIA again.

1000 ft is still not enough clearance for comfort

Another massive balls-up that was easily avoidable.

Flying VOR/DME in a mountaineous terrain ain't child's play. These pilots learnt it the hard way,.

I suppose the only "good" thing was the passengers had no idea what was happening.

While there is no justification at how the ATC behaved in this accident, I can understand their hesitancy to point-out an error to the pilot. It is considered "offensive" to question or point-out errors to seniors and elders unless absolutely necessary. It is a cultural norm in many Asian countries. This aspect also played an important role in the crash of Korean Air 801 in 1997. Better Crew Resource Management should be taught so that it becomes acceptable for a person to "point-out a wrong decisions" irrespective of hierarchy in their professional sphere of life.

How about recommending getting atc WITH self esteem!!! Jeez this is brutal considering there were 4 experienced airmen in the cockpit 😮

Top notch quality as always!

"The approach charts were unclear" in the illustration the pilot is looking at a map of the Great Lakes in the US & Canada, so that's pretty "unclear" for a landing in Nepal.

Conclusion: "Going to Nepal is not for the faint hearted people, there's chance of imminent fatality everywhere" (They should put this on also while advertising about tourism in Nepal)

In saying that, there seems to have been very little margin for error here, coupled with the fact, that the GPWS did not alert the crew whatsoever, along with ATC not paying attention, so I'd not just single out 'pilot error', as the sole cause in this case.

This is the one which I was requesting for months to create. Thank You Very Much. ❤️❤️

Just a small mistake can claim the lives of so many people

Thank you TheFlightChannel.✔✈

I just watched Netflix's documentary 'Downfall' and I remembered the episodes of Lion and Ethiopian Airlines. It's really nice to know in advance the technical issues of these accidents (and of course the alarms!). All the time I thought "The Flight Channel could do a waaay better job here" 🤣🤣🤣

Like the 777 that crashed at San Francisco,came in too low and copilot is not allowed to challenge pilot due to country’s customs.

A common observation is that after doing same things again and again, a point comes where we lose alertness to some extent and start working on guesswork. We do something without required alertness and just expect it would be all fine in the end. Most of us might have experienced the same during a long drive. During initial few hours of the drive we observe keenly, we are alert, our reflexes are responding timely but as we go further, our observation and thinking starts becoming sluggish. Then we would do something just on the basis of guesswork without taking due care and won’t even realizes that we missed something important. It takes a lot of training and peace of mind to develop habit of doing something with proper details and necessary care no matter how many times you have done it before. Guesswork at workplace is always catastrophic unless you are too lucky.

Still not leaving the 'In memory' caption up long enough to read. Otherwise excellent as always.

I noticed statements in the narrative as, "weak self-esteem of Kathmandu ATC personnel" and “although the pilots reported their altitude accurately to the air traffic control, controllers did nothing to warn them of their inappropriate altitude” but still the final report says, "it was a pilot error".

So once "finally getting out of this place", "going to Kathmandu", is tricky.

Aviate, navigate, communicate. They aviated but they didn't navigate nor communicate. That's pretty deadly. Similar accidents are United Flight 173, and Eastern Air Lines Flight 401. There was also another accident very similar to this one. Air China Flight 129. It was a Boeing 767-200 that crashed during a landing attempt in South Korea, and it was all because they were also flying too low, and because GPWS didn't alert them as well. The crash also happened in clouds, and on a mountain as well. The older passenger jets, like the 767, are cool, but their technology just isn't up to date.

Waiting for the flight Chanel's video of recent air crash of yeti airlines in Nepal

This is awesome, thanks for uploading every week as it is worth it!

This route was surely well-known for this airline and what are the difficulties. That there is a high mountain just in front of the Kathmandu airport. This is very strange that the pilots are not informed about the dangers of this route. Obviously, there was thick fog and they couldn't see that mountain in front of them.

I shuddered when informed PIA has submitted approval to fly to Australia. As a nation with not a single commercial fatality in the jet era, it is not acceptable for this airline to fly here. I feel awful for the people of Pakistan their government allows such a dangerous airline to fly. Three fatal crashes in the last decade show this airline continues to learn nothing.

No flight disaster god every life should be saved. We all love to travel a lot.

i tell you, i LIVE for these videos!

1992 was a bad year for Nepal and the Tribhuvan International Airport. 2 Major accidents in less than 3 months.

Theflightchannel is a kind of mood

Great. I'm flying into KTM in 3 weeks. I'll have this video on loop on final.

Well done the video was great. Good structure and good text. Very sad for the lives lost in thr accident.

Epic, posted on my birthday,

167 people tragically lost because of a thumb on the wrong place on the chart. RIP.

Nepalese crash investigators did not blame the air traffic controllers at all. They were supposed to be the pilots' guides and despite correct altitude reporting by the pilots, failed to guide them. I remember this crash vividly though I was only a child when it happened. I had collected dozens of newspaper clips about the ensuing reporting. This was a horrific and avoidable tragedy.

Aviator, or not, The lessons & wisdom I gather from your work is life changing! 👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏

Let's see... -Neither PIC nor 1st officer is familiar/experienced with approach at this airport. -Airport has no radar. -Extremely difficult approach. -Bad weather. -GPWS inoperative. -Useless ATC who should be cleaning outhouses, not handling air traffic. This was a freaking disaster waiting to happen. Not even remotely surprising. Illustrates, once again, that more often than not, transportation disasters are not caused by one failing, but rather by a combination of failings.

oh my god i was looking for the video of this crash yesterday, but since you havent uploaded it i have to make do with others. but you uploaded it today?? woww is this destiny jk

I was waiting for this. Great video.

Disturbingly beautiful graphics from the new 2020 Flight Simulator. And good work as ever.

I know this is a serious matter, but it's funny what you see if you freeze the video at 10:06. The caption is "The approach charts for Kathmandu issued to PIA pilots were also determined to be unclear" while on the laptop computer screen you see a map of the Great Lakes. Yep, that's definitely unclear!

It must be rough on the ground crew who actually saw the faces of those on board the aircraft.

I've flown my entire life and won't be happy til I fly into Lukla.

can we see the people walking INSIDE the plane as we do up the stairs...hehehe

Thank you for another well done video!

Pakistan International Airlines Flight 268 (PK268 / PIA268) --- DEP: Karachi, Pakistan (KHI / OPKC) ARR: Kathmandu, Nepal (KTM / VNKT) --- 1976 Airbus A300B4-100 *AP-BCP* --- 28 September 1992

Occupants 167 Passengers 155 Crew 12 Fatalities 167 Survivors 0

People who rejects to buckle up their safety belts are the same ones with those who shut down the systems that would protect them just because they were disturbed from warning sounds. GPWS could have saved them.

You should do the Horizon Air Bombardier Q400 was stolen from Seattle-Tacoma International Airport (Sea-Tac) in SeaTac, Washington 2018 .. it would be short but it would be interesting to see how that could’ve even happened etc.

Thanks for the new video.

The solution is very simple. The airport should have a radar.

Was waiting for this one!

I was also working for PIA and missing my colleagues, that crew was well experienced, specially the cockpit crew,

Out of interest what is the music that begins at 8:44

Thanks for the update! A recommendation to improve is not to use capital letters for all words, since you don’t narrate them, capital letters are hard to read and follow imo.

Rip to all those that die in crashes out there that could easily be fixed. They are all in a better place now.

A tragic accident from a simple single mistake. RIP to all.

Another great vid. Well done.

New video nice editing but nothing in community tab why

9:27 - Weak self-esteem? If those who were on duty were trained,I wonder how they sleep ever since.10:07 - At least dont show another part of the world!

Shouldn't be all pilot error if the charts he was following were not clear or ambiguous, unless you would say he used bad judgment taking that flight assignment. Lack of appropriate input from ATC was another cause. Were the ATC charts correct? W/o radar, shouldn't ATC be paying more attention to the flight information when it changed course close to the mountains to avoid a storm? Never take "PILOT ERROR" as the final word in fatal crashes as nobody is left to defend the pilots.

remember they altered course around a storm . so they were looking out the window . but didn't know the terrain .

Lord knows the quality of your content is pure Perfection in every sense of the word and 'I dare say' your content has far more attention to detail than NatGeo's AC Investigation. However, I would like to suggest a VoiceOver PLEASE and even more PLEASE Mate. A VoiceOver IMO would make a lot of us watch more and read less in every episode of which I'm sure I speak for the majority of us your loyal viewers. It also helps those amongst us with Special Needs(I'm certain you understand what I mean). TBH there's no other suggestion to improve your content 'ZERO' You're right up there with the best.