Site Katunayake, Sri Lanka Crew 13 Survivors 79 Date 15 November 1978 Injuries (nonfatal) 32 | Passengers 249 Fatalities 183 Aircraft type Douglas DC-8-63CF Number of deaths 183 Location Katunayake | |
 | ||
Summary Controlled flight into terrain Destinations Bandaranaike International Airport, Colombo, Sri Lanka Similar Martinair Flight 138, Alitalia Flight 4128, Indian Airlines Flight 113 | ||
Loftleiðir HF LL 001, a charter flight, crashed on November 15, 1978 on approach just short of the runway at the international airport of Colombo, Sri Lanka. The Douglas DC-8 crash killed 8 of the 13 Icelandic crew members, 5 reserve crew members and 170 (mostly Indonesian) Muslim pilgrims from South Borneo, out of a total of 262 passengers and crew. The official report by Sri Lankan authorities gave the probable cause of the crash as being failure of the crew to conform to approach procedures; however U.S. and Icelandic authorities officially claim faulty equipment at the airport and air traffic control error as the cause of the crash. It is by far the worst crash in Icelandic aviation history and the second worst in Sri Lankan aviation history after Martinair Flight 138 that crashed four years before.
The flight departed Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, en route to Surabaya in Indonesia. It was to land at Colombo-Bandaranaike International Airport for a refueling stop and crew rotation. Thunderstorms were in the area, and windshear was an issue.
Aircraft
The aircraft involved in the incident was a DC-8 chartered for Hajj operations; the aircraft's registration number was TF-FLA, and its name was "Leifur Eiríksson".