Martinair Flight 138

Common card · No. 491718

Martinair Flight 138 was a charter flight of Martinair from Surabaya to Jeddah with a stopover in Colombo. On 4 December 1974, the Douglas DC-8 operating the flight crashed into a mountain in Sri Lanka shortly before landing, killing all 191 people aboard – 182 passengers, all of whom were Indonesian Hajj pilgrims, and nine crew members. The crash remains the deadliest in Sri Lankan aviation history and the third-deadliest involving a DC-8, after Arrow Air Flight 1285R and Nigeria Airways Flight 2120. At the time of the crash, it was the second-deadliest aviation accident in history, after the crash of Turkish Airlines Flight 981 which occurred earlier that same year. Flight 138 departed Surabaya for Jeddah via Colombo at approximately 12.03 UTC. At around 16.30, UTC air traffic control in Colombo cleared the flight. At 16.38 UTC another air traffic controller is said to have intervened, cleared the flight down to 5,000 ft (1,500 m) and reported clearing to 8,000 ft (2,400 m). Colombo approach...

Read on Wikipedia · Image Werner Fischdick, GFDL 1.2