The crash of Boeing 737 near Ahmedabad

Boeing 737-2A8 with tail number VT-EAH (serial - 20481, production - 271) was released in 1970 and on November 24 made its first flight. His two jet engines were the Pratt & Whitney JT8D-9A models . In total, the airliner had 42,750 flight hours and 47,520 cycles (landings) ^[2] .

The aircraft was flying IC 113 from Bombay to Ahmedabad , there were 6 crew members (commander, co-pilot and 4 flight attendants) and 129 passengers (124 adults and 5 children) on board. Departure from Bombay airport was made at 06:05 IST. At 06:47, the crew contacted the dispatcher of Ahmedabad airport. The landing approach was carried out on the runway under adverse weather conditions at a speed of 160 knots, which is higher than the established one. Not seeing the band, the crew allowed the plane to go down to 500 feet (about 150 meters) instead of the 1000 feet set. At 06:53, flight 113 caught the trees and crashed into a power line support, after which, having lost control, fell to the ground and exploded. The disaster occurred at 2540 meters from the end of the strip 23 at the settlement of Chiloda-Kotarpur (Chiloda Kotarpur) of the housing company Noble-Nagar (Noble Nagar) ^[3] .

In total, 130 people died on the spot: 124 passengers and all 6 crew members ^[3] . Some sources mistakenly stated that 124 people died, that is, without crew account ^{[4] [5]} . Of the surviving 5 passengers, 3 subsequently died from their wounds ^[6] . But since 131 people officially died in the disaster ^{[2] [7] [8]} , it can be concluded that out of 3 who died in hospitals, 2 belong to the mortally wounded, that is, they died later than 30 days (after November 18 ) therefore, they are not counted as lost. At the time of the events, the flight 113 crash ranked second among aircraft crashes in India, currently (2015) the fourth ^[2] .

The initial cause of the accident was the crew’s mistake, which fell below the safe altitude. However, during the investigation it was revealed that the airport’s navigation equipment worked with violations, and the course-glide system did not work at all, but the dispatcher did not warn about it ^[3] .

On October 14, 2009, the Supreme Court of Gujarat ruled that the negligence of the airline and airport management led to the crash. They were obliged to pay compensation to the families of the victims, and the share distribution was set as 90/10 (90% - the airline, 10% - the airport), thereby changing the decision of the lower court of March 2003 , which set this distribution as 70/30 ^{[6 ] [9]} .

• Christian Volpati. Indian Airlines Boeing 737-2A8 VT-EAH (msn 20481) HJR (eng.) . - A photo of the crashed aircraft. The appeal date is November 29, 2013.