Pakistan International Airlines Flight 404
Disappearance
At 07:36, the flight took off from the northern city of Gilgit, Pakistan on its way to the national capital Islamabad. One of the pilots of the aircraft made a routine radio call at 07:40; this was the last communication with the aircraft. The aircraft is thought to have crashed in the Himalayas, but the wreckage has never been found. It is speculated that the civilian aircraft was deliberately shot down by the Indian Army with an anti-aircraft missile, fired from a base along the Line of Control.
Aircraft
The aircraft was a Fokker F27-200 Friendship turboprop airliner, c/n 10207, built in 1962 and registered as AP-BBF. It had accumulated approximately 44,524 hours of flying time; and 41,524 cycles (the number of times the aircraft had been pressurized) at the time of the accident.
Search operation
After the disappearance, several aerial search missions were launched by the Pakistani military during the first three or four days. Later, land search parties were organized, comprising civilian and armed forces personnel. These searched the area around the 8,000-metre-high (26,000 ft) mountain Nanga Parbat, but found nothing. Pakistan International Airlines Flight 404 remains a mystery to this date.
See also
References
- ^ "Accident Report". Aviation Safety Network. Flight Safety Foundation. Retrieved 4 February 2014.
- ^ Mir, Shabbir (29 August 2016). "27 years on, flight PK-404 still a mystery". The Express Tribune. Archived from the original on 29 August 2016. Retrieved 21 January 2020.
- ^ "AP-BBF - All Pakistan Aircraft Registration Marks". Retrieved 29 August 2022.
- ^ "27 years on, flight PK-404 still a mystery - History of PIA - Forum". historyofpia.com. Retrieved 14 July 2024.