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This
photo from January 1972 shows Capt. M. M. Salehjee with crash
landed PIA Boeing 720B at Ankara Airport, Turkey. Capt. M. M. Salehjee and
Capt. Mohammed Arshad Mir (as co-pilot) were at the controls of
aircraft as it approached Ankara Airport for landing.
The landing was going to be made by Capt. Mir.
Weather was bad and Mir asked Salehjee to take over for the
landing. Somehow, Salehjee didn’t hear the request, Mir thought
that he had and so the approach was flown with nobody at the
controls until the impact! Pilots were unable to regain control
of the aircraft and it veered off the runway.
The Boeing
720B's main under carriage collapsed as it struck the runway very
hard. As
seen in this photo, soon after aircraft's crash landing PIA logo
and titles were painted out from its tail and fuselage because
Pakistan's then President Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto was due to
arrive at the same airport on a VVIP PIA flight.
Later, this Boeing 720B was repaired and returned to active
service with PIA.
According to
aerotransport.org, the aircraft
damaged in this accident was Boeing 720-040B registration AP-AMJ.
It was coming from Tehran with 34 passengers and 10 crew members
when it met this accident at Ankara Airport on January 22, 1972.
Main reason for the accident was that the aircraft made visual
approach whilst airport was under Instrument Flight Rules (IFR)
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