Passengers 120 Fatalities 126 Date 20 April 1967 Destination Basel Survivor 4 | Crew 10 Survivors 4 Number of deaths 126 Operator Globe Air Passenger count 120 | |
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Summary Controlled flight into terrain (CFIT) Site 3.5 km South of Nicosia Airport Similar Lake Central Flight 527, Aeroflot Flight 2230, Cyprus Airways Flight 284, Varig Airlines Flight 837, South African Airways F | ||
The Nicosia Britannia disaster was the death of 126 passengers and crew on a Bristol Britannia of the Swiss airline Globe Air when it flew into the ground 3.5 kilometres (2.2 mi) south of Nicosia Airport, in Cyprus.
Accident
The Britannia was operating a charter flight bringing tourists from Bangkok in Thailand to Basel in Switzerland. The flight stopped at Colombo in Sri Lanka and then Bombay in India with the next stop due to be Cairo. The crew diverted the flight to Nicosia due to bad weather at Cairo. The aircraft was on the third attempt to land on Runway 32 in a violent thunderstorm when it flew into a hill near the village of Lakatamia and burst into flames.
At the time of the crash, both pilots had exceeded their authorized duty time by three hours. The flight's first officer had less than 50 hours flying time in Britannia aircraft.
Two German (Christa Blümel and Peter Femfert) and two Swiss (Veronika Gysin and Nicolas Pulver) passengers survived; three of them were seriously injured and were treated at a United Nations field hospital near Nicosia, the fourth, Nicolas Pulver, was reported to be unhurt.