Bhoja Air Flight 213
Boeing 737-236A · Microburst-induced wind shear followed by pilot error
From Jinnah International Airport (KHI) to Benazir Bhutto International Airport, Islamabad, Pakistan
Event
- NTSB case
- DCA12RA065
- 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
- InvestigationHow far the investigation had got when the record was published: preliminary, ongoing, final or completed. Unknown where the source does not say. Glossary
- Final · SIB final report
- Event fatalities
- 127 · all aircraft and ground
- Ground fatalities
- Unknown
- Occupants
- 127
- 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
- 0 serious · 0 minor (NTSB)
- 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
- WeatherVisual meteorological conditions (VMC): good enough to fly by looking outside. Instrument conditions (IMC): cloud or low visibility, flying by instruments. Glossary
- Not recorded
Boeing 737-236A
- Flight
- B4 213
- Aircraft type
- Boeing 737
- Category
- Airplane
- 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
- AP-BKC
- Operator
- Bhoja Air
- Onboard fatalities
- 127
- Route
- From Jinnah International Airport (KHI)To Benazir Bhutto International Airport, Islamabad, Pakistan
- Aircraft age
- Not recorded
- Flight rulesThe regulations the flight operated under: in the US, Part 91 (general aviation), Part 121 (airlines), Part 135 (air taxi and commuter) and others; for flights abroad, the NTSB's coarser commercial or non-commercial code. Glossary
- Non-U.S., Commercial
- Phase of flightThe stage of the flight when things started to go wrong: standing, taxi, takeoff, initial climb, en route, maneuvering, approach or landing. Glossary
- Not recorded
- Defining eventThe single coded event the NTSB judges best describes what happened (records from 2008 on). Older records name the first occurrence in the sequence instead. Glossary
- Not recorded
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- Destroyed
Cause areas
- Personnel issues › Task performance
- Environmental issues › Conditions/weather/phenomena
- Personnel issues › Experience/knowledge
- Organizational issues › Support/oversight/monitoring
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
Bhoja Air Flight 213 was a domestic scheduled passenger flight operated by Pakistani private airline Bhoja Air from Karachi to Islamabad. On 20 April 2012, the Boeing 737-200 aircraft serving the route crashed in bad weather during the final approach, killing all 121 passengers and 6 crew on board. It remains the second deadliest air disaster in Pakistan, after the 2010 crash of Airblue Flight 202.
The crash was caused by the crew's inadequate flight management during adverse weather conditions. The flight crew were not trained adequately and properly on the automated system of the Boeing 737-236A, a more advanced version of the Boeing 737-200 series, and didn't retain sufficient knowledge on the correct procedures for handling an aircraft in bad weather conditions. Additionally, Bhoja Air's lack of oversight and multiple errors within Pakistan CAA's monitoring system of Pakistani airliners further contributed to the accident.
Accident
The aircraft was operating a domestic scheduled flight from Jinnah International Airport, Karachi, to Benazir Bhutto International Airport, Islamabad, which was the airline's first evening flight in almost 12 years. It was the inaugural flight of Bhoja Air's second daily service on this route (Bhoja Air was earlier closed down amidst financial difficulties in the year 2000, but restarted operations in March 2012). There were six crew and 121 passengers on board. The flight departed from Karachi at 17:05 PST (12:00 UTC) and was due to land at Islamabad at 18:50 (13:50 UTC). The flight was piloted by Captain Noorullah Afridi (58) and First Officer Javaid Malik (53). The flight was uneventful until its approach to Islamabad.
Crash
At 18:40 PKT, with an airspeed of 215 kn and a pitch angle of 0 degree, the aircraft slammed onto the ground with its main landing gears first. It crashed at a distance of 4.24 nmi from the runway, in the small village of Hussain Abad in Islamabad, in heavy rain conditions. The aircraft exploded and struck a 5 m terrace, causing further breakup. The wreckage was spread over 2 km radius. All 127 people on board were killed.
A following Airblue flight landed safely five minutes after the accident occurred.
The airport was closed for three hours after the accident due to a lack of fire cover. The emergency crews based at the airport went to the crash site to assist in the firefighting operations there. A total of 100 army personnel were deployed to assist the other rescue personnel. The rescue operation was hampered due to the surge of onlookers at the site. A traffic jam reportedly blocked rescuers from reaching the site quickly. Flights affected by the closure were diverted to Allama Iqbal International Airport, Lahore. At least four houses were badly damaged due to the crash. However, despite the fact that it occurred in a residential area, there were no casualties on the ground.
Investigation and cause
Investigation
An investigation into the crash was opened by the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) and by the Safety Investigation Board of Pakistan. Boeing assisted the CAA with the investigation. The flight data recorder was recovered on the same day of the crash, while the aircraft's cockpit voice recorder was recovered from the wreckage on the next day. Both flight recorders were handed over to the CAA and later sent to the United States for analysis by Boeing.
Pakistani officials promised a full investigation and Farooq Bhoja, the owner of Bhoja Air, was put on the Exit Control List, meaning he could not leave the country while the criminal investigation was underway against him and the airline.
CAA, the regulatory authority for maintaining aviation safety standards in Pakistan, faced harsh criticism in Pakistani media for allegedly compromising on safety standards. The corruption within CAA, due to politically motivated appointments, was alleged to be the prime reason for the increase in frequency of technical faults, crash landings and catastrophic air accidents. The CAA, however, maintained that it did not issue any airline license or airworthiness certificate under political pressure. It did announce that the Bhoja Air engineers were not qualified to issue the air worthiness certificate.
Following the accident, the CAA announced it would re-certify the fleet of all private airlines in the country. The CAA suspended the airworthiness certificates of two Bhoja Air aircraft on 24 April 2012. The CAA announced that the suspension was lifted on 28 April 2012.
Conclusion
Civil Aviation Authority released the final investigation report comprising 78 pages on 21 January 2015. The report found that the primary causes of the accident included the ineffective management by the cockpit crew of the basic flight parameters such as airspeed, altitude, descent rate, attitude, as well as thrust management. The report also found that the ineffective automated flight deck management in extreme adverse weather conditions by the cockpit crew caused the accident.
The pilots had inadequate flying experience, training and competence level in the aircraft. The inability of the CAA to ensure automated flight deck variance type training and monitoring requirements primarily due to incorrect information that had been provided by Bhoja Air was listed as one of the contributing factors to the crash.
Text from the Wikipedia article “Bhoja Air Flight 213” (revision 1368419587, 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
NTSB narrative
On April 20, 2012, at about 1840 local time, Bhoja Air flight BH0213, a Boeing 737-236, registration AP-BKC, crashed about 3.7 miles short of runway 30 during an approach to landing at the Benazir Bhutto International Airport, Islamabad, Pakistan. The flight originated from Jinnah International Airport, Karachi, Pakistan. All 127 people on board were fatally injured, and the aircraft was destroyed. Heavy rain and thunderstorms were reported at the time of the accident.
The Government of Pakistan is investigating the accident and has appointed an Investigator-in-Charge (IIC) along with investigators from the Pakistan Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) and the Pakistan Air Force. As the state of design and manufacture of the airplane and engines, the NTSB has designated a U.S. accredited representative to assist the Pakistan Government in their investigation under the provisions of Annex 13 to the Convention on International Civil Aviation.
All inquiries should be directed to:
Headquarters, Civil Aviation Authority Terminal-1, JIAP Karachi-75200 Pakistan E-mail: psib@caapakistan.com.pk
Verbatim NTSB factual narrative from the NTSB dataset
Sources
Wikipedia article: Bhoja Air Flight 213
- Article
- Bhoja Air Flight 213
- Revision
- 1368419587 · 2026-08-08 · retrieved 2026-09-18
- Wikidata
- Q855050
- Licence
- Text CC BY-SA 4.0, by the article's authors; Wikidata CC0; town positions GeoNames (CC BY 4.0)
NTSB record DCA12RA065
- Event ID
- 20120427X01955
- Case number
- DCA12RA065
- Dataset
- full-current
- Source SHA-256
- 5cf380f0061817c0331a6b2d8cc7e0ee3a79bea469a1001dc5c10e56f35f5ab3
Where each value comes from
- Record
- Wikipedia article "Bhoja Air Flight 213" (page 35564070, revision 1368419587); merged with NTSB case DCA12RA065 (events / aircraft)
- Date
- Wikipedia infobox: date; matches the Safety Investigation Board (SIB), Pakistan Civil Aviation Authority (report now hosted by the Ministry of Defence, Pakistan) final report
- Place and country
- Wikipedia infobox: site
- Map position
- Wikipedia: 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); gaps and aircraft details from NTSB record DCA12RA065
- Operation
- airline flight number in the infobox
- Fatalities
- Wikipedia: Wikipedia infobox: aircraft fatalities; matches the Safety Investigation Board (SIB), Pakistan Civil Aviation Authority (report now hosted by the Ministry of Defence, Pakistan) final report
- Ground fatalities
- Wikipedia: not stated in the Wikipedia infobox
- Summary
- Wikipedia infobox: summary
Source notes (3)
- One occurrence in two sources, merged: the Wikipedia article "Bhoja Air Flight 213" and NTSB case DCA12RA065, matched by the same aircraft registration and date. For this event outside the United States Wikipedia's values are used where the two differ; each value names its source.
- No bulk values were replaced by the NTSB case API.
- Checked against the Safety Investigation Board (SIB), Pakistan Civil Aviation Authority (report now hosted by the Ministry of Defence, Pakistan) final report on 2026-09-18. The report states the same date, flight number, fatalities, registration, operator, departure, destination and damage. Not checked: place, crash-site coordinates, aircraft type, type of operation and ground fatalities.