Passengers 146 Survivors 0 Aircraft name Antalya Operator Turkish Airlines Survivor 0 | Crew 8 Aircraft type Boeing 727-200 Date 19 September 1976 Fatalities 154 (all) Passenger count 146 | |
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Site Karatepe, Isparta, Turkey Summary Controlled flight into terrain Similar Turkish Airlines Flight 981, Turkish Airlines Flight 1951, 1976 Zagreb mid‑air co, American Airlines Flight 625, 1959 Turkish Airlines G | ||
Turkish Airlines Flight 452 was a scheduled domestic passenger flight from Istanbul Atatürk Airport to Antalya Airport, Turkey. On 19 September 1976, the Boeing 727-200 operating the flight struck a slope of a hill at Karatepe in Isparta Province, 60 mi (97 km) north of the destination airport due to a pilot error on approach resulting in the death of all 154 people on board. The accident was the second worst one involving a Boeing 727 at the time and is the all-time worst aviation accident on Turkish soil.
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Background
The Boeing 727-200 that operated the flight was built in 1974 with serial number 20982 and was equipped with three Pratt & Whitney JT8D-15 turbofan engines. Flight 452 was carrying 146 passengers and 8 crew members.
Accident
Flight 452 departed Istanbul Atatürk Airport at 22:45 Eastern European Time (EET) (20:45 UTC) for the one-hour flight to Antalya Airport in southern Turkey. At 23:11 EET, the first officer called the control tower at Antalya Airport to report that they had the runway lights in sight, even though the aircraft was actually still flying over Isparta, well to the north of Antalya. He requested an approach directly to Runway 36 (facing north) and immediately started to descend for final approach under visual flight rules instead of instrument flight rules without waiting for the clearance by the air traffic controller (ATC). The ATC asked the aircraft where it was going to land and warned that it was not in the region yet and it could neither be seen on the radar screen nor by naked eye. Seeing the lights of a 4,000 metres (13,000 ft) long straight highway north of Isparta city, the first officer responded that he believed his own eyes, but mistook it for the runway.
As the aircraft was at 150 metres (490 ft), the captain returned to the cockpit and became aware of the fact that the aircraft was descending onto a highway with truck traffic on it. He initiated a sudden climb with full power. However, the heavily loaded aircraft struck the slope of a hill at Karatepe with its right wing and crashed.