Ariana Afghan Airlines Flight 202

Ariana Afghan Airlines Flight 202 (YA-BAG) was a scheduled international civilian passenger flight from Lebanon to Afghanistan on 21 November 1959. It took off from Beirut and was destined for Kabul, with a stopover at Mehrabad in Iran and another stopover at Kandahar in Afghanistan. Two minutes after takeoff, the aircraft, a Douglas DC-4, crashed into the side of a hill in Aramoun. The impact caused a fire to break out in the cabin, killing 24 of the flight's 27 total occupants on the scene. The three initial survivors were taken to a hospital in Beirut shortly after the crash, and two of them later succumbed to their injuries.

Ariana Afghan Airlines Flight 202

Aircraft, similar to the one involved in this incident, photographed while under operation by KLM Royal Dutch Airlines in 1954.
Occurrence
Date	21 November 1959
Summary	Controlled flight into terrain
Site	Aramoun, Lebanon
Aircraft
Aircraft type	Douglas DC-4
Operator	Ariana Afghan Airlines
Registration	YA-BAG
Flight origin	Beirut International Airport, Lebanon
1st stopover	Mehrabad International Airport, Iran
2nd stopover	Kandahar International Airport, Afghanistan
Destination	Kabul International Airport, Afghanistan
Passengers	22
Crew	5
Fatalities	26 (24 initially, 2 in hospital)
Survivors	1

Investigation

An investigation was launched into the cause of the crash; the report found that a day earlier, after arriving from Frankfurt, West Germany, the flight was delayed for 20 hours due to technical difficulties. Two causes were proposed:

• Navigational error: the pilot did not properly execute a right turn as early as he should have, either because he forgot or was distracted by some unusual occurrence;
• Fire in the No. 1 engine, which induced the pilot to start emergency actions with a resulting reduction in the rate of turn and climb.

External links

• AirDisaster.com Accident Database^[usurped]