Saudia Flight 163 was a scheduled passenger flight of Saudia that caught fire after takeoff from Riyadh International Airport (now the Riyadh Air Base) on a flight to Jeddah, Saudi Arabia on 19 August 1980. All 287 passengers and 14 crew on board the Lockheed L-1011-200 TriStar registered HZ-AHK, died after the aircraft made an emergency landing back at the Riyadh airport.
At the time, the incident was the second deadliest single aircraft disaster in history, after Turkish Airlines Flight 981. It was also the third deadliest aircraft disaster overall, after the Tenerife airport disaster of 1977 and Turkish Airlines Flight 981. It was also the highest death toll of any aviation accident in Saudi Arabia and the highest death toll of any accident involving a Lockheed L-1011 anywhere in the world. It is also the deadliest aviation disaster that didn't involve a crash on impact or mid-flight break up.
Read more about Saudia Flight 163: Passengers and Crew, Fire, Aftermath
Famous quotes containing the word flight:
“AIDS was ... an illness in stages, a very long flight of steps that led assuredly to death, but whose every step represented a unique apprenticeship. It was a disease that gave death time to live and its victims time to die, time to discover time, and in the end to discover life.”
—Hervé Guibert (1955–1991)