Plane Fell Like 'a Big Ball of Flames'

By JOHN-THOR DAHLBURG

Nov. 13, 1996 12 AM PT

TIMES STAFF WRITER

KHERI SANWAL, India —

To some, it sounded like a monsoon thunderclap; to others, like a bomb, or a more powerful version of the firecrackers they had set off two days before on Hinduism’s most joyous holiday.

As a hazy twilight fell on the verdant farmlands of Haryana state in northern India, houses in this small rural town of 3,000 to 4,000 people were still trimmed with the glowing colored lights set out to celebrate Diwali, when Hindus fete the triumph of good over evil, light over darkness.

More than two miles above this tranquil countryside of wheat and mustard fields, two aircraft--a Saudi Arabian Airlines 747-100 and a cargo plane from the former Soviet Central Asian republic of Kazakhstan--crashed into each other Tuesday evening in the worst midair collision in aviation history.

At least 350 people were killed.

As he was relaxing at his home 20 miles away after a day’s work in his mustard field, farmer Kanwar Singh, 35, heard the thunder of the collision high in the sky. At first, he said, he thought it was “a big Diwali firecracker”--which Indians explode by the millions on the annual holiday that was celebrated Sunday--and nothing more.

But then the slight farmer in sandals turned his gaze upward.

“I saw a plane,” Singh said. “It stood still for a moment, then started to come down in a big ball of flames. I was scared.”

Quickly overcoming his fright, Singh jumped into a jeep and, like thousands of other people in the surrounding area, made his way over rutted country roads toward the descending fireball.

A 50-foot-long section of the Saudi Arabian Airlines jumbo jet, which was carrying 312 passengers and crew members, plunged into the sandy dirt of a freshly plowed field outside this farming town, about 60 miles west of New Delhi.

Charred, mangled bodies, their clothes burned or in tatters, lay among twisted, singed remnants of the aircraft. Plummeting debris and luggage had dug craters into the soft ground.

The cool night air, laden with the customary scents of an Indian autumn--greenery, freshly turned earth and cow manure--was heavy with the nauseating stink of smoking wreckage and burned flesh.

Raj Kumar, a 25-year-old sugar cane grower, wrapped in a woolen blanket against the chill, hitchhiked by scooter and car toward the disaster site about 20 miles away from his hamlet.

Kumar’s younger brother, Vijender, 23, a diesel-engine mechanic, had been on the Saudi 747, flying to a job abroad, Raj Kumar said.

“I hope to find my brother, or what is left of him,” he said simply.

As he rode in the car of an American reporter, the farmer worried aloud if his family could recover the 52,000 rupees--about $1,500, a small fortune for most Indians--that the family spent to purchase Vijender’s ticket and visa.

Debris from the Kazakh charter flight, a four-engine Russian-made Ilyushin IL-76, hit the ground near Behrod, a village about six miles from Kheri Sanwal. The plane’s wings had been sliced off, and burned bodies of some of its passengers and crew lay nearby.

Villagers used tractors to bring emergency workers to this isolated locale about half a mile from the nearest paved road. Ten firetrucks, 350 police officers and 100 government and private doctors were enlisted for rescue and recovery operations, said Police Supt. Mohammed Akil, who was in charge.

But in the inky nighttime darkness, occasionally sliced by the beams of automobile headlamps, flashlights or the lights of a television crew, work was proceeding slowly, and scores of officers, wearing kerchiefs over their mouths against the rank smell and the fear of disease, stood around listlessly.

Almost eight hours after the collision, which occurred at 6:40 p.m. local time, 150 bodies had been recovered, Akil said. He said he knew of three people who had survived the crash but that two had subsequently died. Other reports indicated a fourth survivor also died.

Sections of the 747’s wreckage still smoldered and sent off billows of acrid smoke as a firefighter slowly played a hose over it. One section, too twisted to tell from what part of the plane it had come, bore a painted green Saudi flag.

Thinning ranks of villagers and reporters who rushed to the scene from New Delhi roamed freely over the site, poking at the charred metal and fabric with their feet, standing in hushed silence before the mutilated dead.

“We heard a big explosion in the sky, and saw a great ball of fire and a burst of light,” recalled Police Asst. Sub-Inspector Manohar Lal, who works in the police station that is responsible for Kheri Sanwal. “We knew something was wrong and that a plane had crashed.”

Lal said the falling debris had not caused any casualties on the ground but that police had given up hope of finding more survivors from the two aircraft.

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

Crash Probe

Because weather conditions were good at the time of the air accident in India, investigators are expected to concentrate on two main possibilities for the collision: pilot or air traffic error.

Kazakstan Airlines

Ilyushin-76 cargo plane

At about 6:40 p.m. local time, the Kazak aircraft was authorized to descend to 15,000 feet

Collision avoidance radar: It is doubtful Kazak plane carried one.

Saudi Arabian Airlines

Boeing 747-100

At about the same time, the Saudi plane was cleared to climb to 14,000 feet.

Collision avoidance radar: If the Saudi plane had been to the U.S., it may have had a system.

Shymkent: Departure point of Kazakh airliner.

New Dehli: Destination of Kazakh airliner, takeoff point of Saudi airliner.

Dhahran / Jidda: Destinations for Saudi airliner

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