Incident Overview
Description
A Pakistan Air Force Lockheed C-130B Hercules carrying Pakistani President General Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq crashed shortly after takeoff from Bahawalpur Airport and caught fire. All 30 occupants were killed. Zia-ul-Haq had witnessed a tank inspection at Bahawalpur and was returning to Islamabad with his entourage, which consisted a.o. of several senior army generals and the American Ambassador to Pakistan. Many theories indicated that the accident was caused by sabotage. In 2008 newspaper The Times reported that, back in 1988, an analysis by a US lab found “extensive contamination” by brass and aluminium particles in the elevator booster package. This may have caused sluggish controls leading to overcontrol. This in turn may have led to the pilots losing control at low altitude soon after takeoff.
Source of Information
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/asia/article4543628.ece?token=null&offset=0&page=1http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/asia/article4543628.ece?token=null&offset=0&page=1Primary Cause
Contamination of elevator booster package with brass and aluminium particles, potentially leading to sluggish controls and loss of control.Contamination of elevator booster package with brass and aluminium particles, potentially leading to sluggish controls and loss of control.Share on:
