Douglas DC-8 crash, Jul 11, 1991 (261 killed), Jeddah-Kin...
Douglas DC-8 accident on July 11, 1991 near Jeddah-King Abdulaziz, Makkah l-Mukarramah, Saudi Arabia with 261 fatalities. Cause: A chain of maintenance...
- Date: July 11, 1991
- Aircraft: Douglas DC-8
- Location: Jeddah-King Abdulaziz, Makkah l-Mukarramah, Saudi Arabia
- Fatalities: 261
- Phase of flight: Approach and landing
- Cause: A chain of maintenance and operational failures: under-inflated tyres were not serviced, the aircraft was released by personnel not qualified to do so, and the takeoff continued after tyre failure, allowing a wheel well fire to destroy the controls.
A Nationair-operated DC-8-61 flying Nigeria Airways flight 2120, a hajj charter from Jeddah to Sokoto, suffered tyre failures on the takeoff roll. Burning rubber ignited a fire in the wheel wells that spread into the cabin floor and disabled the control systems. The aircraft came down while trying to return to Jeddah, killing all 261 people on board.