Indian Airlines Flight 171

Not to be confused with Air India Flight 171.

Indian Airlines Flight 171 was a scheduled domestic passenger flight that crashed while attempting an emergency landing at Bombay Airport (now Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport) on 12 October 1976 after suffering an uncontained engine failure, killing all 95 people on board. Metal fatigue in the No. 2 engine's 10th stage high-pressure compressor disk had caused it to disintegrate.^[1] The resulting fragments severed fuel lines, causing fuel to leak into the engine and ignite, producing an uncontrolled fire that eventually affected control surfaces, leading to a loss of control.

Indian Airlines Flight 171

An Indian Airlines Caravelle, similar to the accident aircraft
Accident
Date	12 October 1976 (1976-10-12)
Summary	In-flight fire due to an uncontained engine failure
Site	Bombay-Santacruz Airport, Bombay, India
Aircraft
Aircraft type	Sud Aviation Caravelle
Operator	Indian Airlines
IATA flight No.	IC171
ICAO flight No.	IAC171
Call sign	INDAIR 171
Registration	VT-DWN
Flight origin	Bombay-Santacruz Airport (now Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport)
Destination	Madras Airport (now Chennai International Airport)
Occupants	95
Passengers	89
Crew	6
Fatalities	95
Survivors	0

Accident

Flight 171 was a scheduled domestic passenger flight from Bombay (now Mumbai) to Madras (now Chennai). A Boeing aircraft was originally supposed to make the flight but it developed engine trouble and was replaced with a Sud Aviation Caravelle.^[2] Shortly after takeoff from runway 27, Flight 171 suffered a No. 2 engine failure. The crew of Flight 171 immediately turned back to attempt an emergency landing on Bombay Airport's runway 09. With its undercarriage down, approximately 1,000 yards (3,000 ft; 910 m) from the end of the runway, and while at an altitude of 300 feet (91 m), the aircraft suffered a loss of control and plummeted into the ground. Everyone on board Flight 171 perished in the accident.^[1][3]

Cause

A fatigue crack in the tenth stage compressor disc caused a power plant failure which was followed by the bursting of the compressor casing and the cutting of fuel lines that spanned the structure. This caused an intense in-flight fire in the engine bay. It is believed the fire consumed the Caravelle's supply of hydraulic fluid and this was the cause of the aircraft going out of control.^[4]

Notable victims

• R. Ponnappan Nadar (b.1921/1923) – politician and lawyer from Indian National Congress (INC); former Member of Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly, representing Vilavancode constituency.
• Rani Chandra (b. 1949) – Malayalam-Tamil actress and model.