Saudia Flight 163
aviation accident
Saudia Flight 163 was a scheduled Saudia passenger flight departing from Quaid-e-Azam Airport in Karachi, Pakistan, bound for Kandara Airport in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, via then-Riyadh International Airport in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, which caught fire after takeoff on 19 August 1980. Although the Lockheed L-1011 TriStar made a successful emergency landing at Riyadh, the flight crew failed to perform an emergency evacuation of the airplane, leading to the deaths of all 287 passengers and 14 crew on board the aircraft from smoke inhalation.
The accident is the deadliest aviation disaster involving a Lockheed L-1011 TriStar, and the deadliest to occur in Saudi Arabia. At the time, this was the second-deadliest single-aircraft accident in the history of aviation, after Turkish Airlines Flight 981, and the third-deadliest accident overall, when including the Tenerife airport disaster.
Aircraft
The aircraft involved in the accident was a Lockheed L-1011-200 TriStar, registered in Saudi Arabia as HZ-AHK with serial number 1169. The aircraft was certified on 23 July 1979 and was delivered to Saudia nearly a month later. It had accumulated a total of 3,023 flight hours and 1,759 cycles. HZ-AHK was equipped with three Rolls Royce RB211-524 engines with each having an average of 4,000 total engine hours.
Passengers and crew
Of the flight's passengers, 82 boarded in Karachi, while the remaining 205 boarded in Riyadh. The majority of the passengers were Saudis and Pakistani religious pilgrims on their way to Mecca.
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