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EgyptAir Flight 864

25 Dec 1976 · Don Mueang International Airport, Bangkok, Thailand

Boeing 707-366C · Controlled flight into terrain due to pilot error

From Rome–Fiumicino Leonardo da Vinci International Airport (FCO) to Tokyo Haneda International Airport (HND)

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Event

Event typeAccident: someone killed or seriously injured, or the aircraft substantially damaged (NTSB definition). Incident: an occurrence that affected or could have affected safety, short of that. Glossary
Accident
Event fatalities
71 · all aircraft and ground
Ground fatalities
19
Occupants
52
Survivors
0
InjuriesFatal: death within 30 days. Serious: over 48 hours in hospital within a week, most broken bones, severe bleeding, nerve or organ damage, or serious burns. Minor: anything less. Glossary
Unknown
OperationWhat kind of flying it was, grouped by the rules it flew under: airline (US Part 121), air taxi and commuter (Part 135), general aviation (Part 91 and similar), military or government. Glossary
Airline

Boeing 707-366C

Flight
MS864
Aircraft type
Boeing 707
Category
Airplane · from aircraft type
RegistrationThe aircraft's tail number, such as N12345 or G-ABCD. Registrations are reissued, so the same one years apart can be a different aircraft. Glossary
SU-AXA
Operator
EgyptAir
Onboard fatalities
52
Route
From Rome–Fiumicino Leonardo da Vinci International Airport (FCO)To Tokyo Haneda International Airport (HND)

Cause areas

  • Personnel issues › Task performance

From the investigation findings the Wikipedia article reports, sorted into the NTSB's cause areas with AI assistance.

Approximate · Coordinates from the Wikipedia article; not checked against an investigation report.

From the Wikipedia article

EgyptAir Flight 864 was an international scheduled passenger flight from Rome Fiumicino Airport to Tokyo International Airport, via Cairo, Bombay, and Bangkok. On 25 December 1976, the Boeing 707 crashed into an industrial complex in Bangkok. All 52 people on board were killed, and 19 plus on the ground in the crash.

Accident

Flight 864 was a regularly scheduled international passenger flight from Rome to Tokyo with stopovers in Cairo, Bombay and Bangkok. With 9 crew members and 43 passengers on board, flight 864 approached Bangkok. At 20:30 GMT (03:30 local time), the crew contacted the approach controller and reported about the distance of 33 nmi from the airport’s radio beacon. At this time, conditions were reported as calm, with cloudiness from 2/8 to 4/8 at the lower border of 300 m, air temperature of 25 C at a dew point of 24 C, visibility of 4,000 m, and an airfield pressure of 1007 mB. Having received the radar vector to the "BK" non-directional beacon (NDB), the crew began their approach to runway 21L. The crew reported their observations. The controller cleared the flight to land, and the crew acknowledged the transmission. Then at about 03:45, the aircraft crashed into a weaving mill building in an industrial area of the city, located 2 km northeast of the end of runway 21L. The aircraft exploded on impact, and all 52 people on board were killed. The weaving mill was also destroyed, with 19 people killed on the ground. The total number of victims was 71 people. At that time, the crash was the deadliest aviation disaster to occur in Thailand (it is now the sixth).

Investigation and cause

Cause

Pilot error was determined to be the cause of the crash. EgyptAir claimed that the Bangkok control tower had provided inadequate weather information to the crew of Flight 864. The crew had also reduced the aircraft's vertical speed and did not monitor its height properly.

Text from the Wikipedia article “EgyptAir Flight 864” (revision 1339299672, retrieved 2026-09-18) by its authors, under CC BY-SA 4.0. Extracted as plain text: references, tables, images and some sections are left out. Read the article

Sources

Wikipedia article: EgyptAir Flight 864
Article
EgyptAir Flight 864
Revision
1339299672 · 2026-02-19 · retrieved 2026-09-18
Wikidata
Q5348315
Licence
Text CC BY-SA 4.0, by the article's authors; Wikidata CC0; town positions GeoNames (CC BY 4.0)
Where each value comes from
Record
Wikipedia article "EgyptAir Flight 864" (page 24930114, revision 1339299672)
Date
Wikipedia infobox: date
Place and country
Wikipedia infobox: site
Map position
Wikipedia article coordinates
Aircraft, operator and route
Wikipedia infobox: aircraft type, registration, operator, origin and destination; route airports from the linked airport articles' Wikidata codes (OurAirports)
Operation
airline flight number in the infobox
Fatalities
Wikipedia infobox: total_fatalities
Ground fatalities
Wikipedia infobox: ground fatalities
Summary
Wikipedia infobox: summary
Source notes (1)
  • Wikipedia · Facts from the Wikipedia article's infobox and coordinates, not checked against an investigation report. Independent review pending.