ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Wednesday, November 13, 1996 TAG: 9611130085
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: KHEDI SANSWAL, INDIA
SOURCE: The Washington Post
Two airliners collided in clouds near New Delhi Tuesday night with a burst of fire, killing at least 349 people in the deadliest midair crash in history.
A Saudia Boeing 747, carrying 312 passengers and crew bound for Saudi Arabia, had just taken off from New Delhi's Indira Gandhi International Airport about 6:30 p.m. when it collided with a Kazak Airlines Ilyushin Il-76 about 60 miles to the west. Thirty-eight people were reported aboard the Kazakh plane, which was arriving from Shymkent in the former Soviet republic of Kazakstan.
A local police commander, Virendra Singh, said one person may have survived. About 200 bodies were taken to a local hospital, and more were scattered within a one-mile radius of the smoldering Saudi jet in this small village, Singh said early today.
The collision was the third-deadliest plane crash in history. It was the worst midair collision, surpassing the 1976 collision of a British Trident and a Yugoslav DC-9 over Zagreb, Yugoslavia, that killed 176.
The shattered planes fell to earth away from populated areas in open fields about seven miles apart, apparently causing no deaths or serious injuries among people on the ground.
Witnesses said the airliners collided in a cloud, suggesting the pilots could not see each other's planes in time to avoid a crash. ``I saw a light in the clouds. I could see it coming towards my village,'' said Mahendra Singh, elected leader of a nearby settlement. The 747 ``caught fire on the rear part. [The planes] collided in the clouds.''
The American pilot of a C-141 U.S. Air Force transport plane who was bringing in supplies for the U.S. Embassy in New Delhi witnessed the fiery aftermath from 20,000 feet.
``We noticed out of our right-hand [side of the plane] a large cloud lit up with an orange glow, from within the clouds,'' the 30-year-old captain, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told news service reporters. ``The glow intensity of the cloud became dimmer and the two fireballs descended and became fireballs on the ground.''
After takeoff, the Saudi plane had been cleared to climb to 14,000 feet, while the Kazak aircraft was authorized to descend to 15,000, H.S. Khola, the director general of civil aviation, told the Associated Press. Suddenly, Khola said at a news conference, ``the radar blip of both aircraft was lost.''
The Indian government ordered an inquiry, aviation officials said.
Singh, the police official, said civil aviation authorities instructed officers not to search in the dark for the planes' flight recorders, which could provide more specific information about the cause of the collision.
Some witnesses compared the sound of the collision to an explosion of pressurized cooking-gas cylinders. Local residents immediately rushed to help any survivors and offer help to police and firefighters who removed bodies. Some bodies were in pieces, others were burned beyond recognition, and a few were identifiable.
Singh said three people with faint heartbeats were taken to a local hospital, where two died. He was uncertain whether the third was still alive.
The fuselage of the Saudi airliner dug a trench about 60 yards long and 15 feet deep into unplanted farmland where chick peas and mustard for cooking oil are grown in season. The field presented a gruesome scene Wednesday morning, with dismembered and charred bodies spread among twisted pieces of the wreckage.
``I've never seen anything like this - so much death,'' said Rakesh Agarwal, a college student from Charkhi Dadri, the nearest large town. ``I could not react. People were just too shocked to react.''
Villagers said the Saudi pilot appeared to have kept control of the 747 after the collision. The pilot then seemed to guide the burning jumbo jet into the open field. ``It's the pilot's mercy that he ensured the villagers were not harmed,'' said Jeet Ram Gupta, a lawyer from Charkhi Dadri.
The Kazak plane fell in Birhod village, about seven miles from here.
Officials told news services that there were 229 passengers and 23 crew members aboard Saudia Flight 763, which was bound for Dhahran and Jiddah. Middle Eastern news reports said most of the passengers were Indians and Nepalese and some were Europeans.
Kazak Airlines Flight 1907 carried 28 passengers and 10 crew, according to transport officials in the Central Asian state who were quoted by news services. It had been chartered by a company in neighboring Kyrgyzstan, and most of the passengers aboard were Kyrgyz.
LENGTH: Medium: 86 lines ILLUSTRATION: GRAPHIC: Map by AP. KEYWORDS: FATALITYby CNB