United Arab Airlines Flight 749
Antonov An-24 · Pilot error, poor weather
From UNFICYP Nicosia Airport Heliport (LCNC) to Cairo International Airport, Cairo, Egypt
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
- 30 · all aircraft and ground
- Ground fatalities
- Unknown
- Occupants
- 30
- 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
Antonov An-24
- Aircraft type
- Antonov AN-24
- 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-AOA
- Operator
- United Arab Airlines
- Onboard fatalities
- 30
- Route
- From UNFICYP Nicosia Airport Heliport (LCNC)To Cairo International Airport, Cairo, Egypt
Cause areas
- Personnel issues › Task performance
- Environmental issues › Conditions/weather/phenomena
From the investigation findings the Wikipedia article reports, sorted into the NTSB's cause areas with AI assistance.
Not plotted · Not plotted: the Wikipedia article gives no coordinates, and its site names no town or airport that matches exactly.
From the Wikipedia article
United Arab Airlines Flight 749 was a scheduled international passenger flight on 18 March 1966 that crashed while attempting to land in Cairo, Egypt. All thirty passengers and crew on board were killed.
Crash
Flight 749 took off from Nicosia Airport bound for Cairo International Airport. En route, the aircraft encountered bad weather, and conditions were poor in Cairo due to the presence of sandstorms. The crew of Flight 749 contacted Mirsair's Operations about diversion options. The flight crew also reported they were flying through thunderstorms with icing conditions, that two of the aircraft's altimeters were giving different readings, the magnetic compass being unserviceable, and that there was a crack in a cockpit window panel due to the thunderstorms. After diverting was discussed, Flight 749 continued to Cairo. The flight was cleared for a Runway 23 approach but crashed approximately 5 kilometres from it. Everyone on board Flight 749 perished in the accident.
After the crash, the sandstorm hampered rescue operations. Visibility was near zero and rescue vehicles became bogged down in the drifting sands.
Investigation and cause
Investigation
Accident investigators determined that "the accident arose from the descent of the aircraft below the safe flight altitude in the final approach and the impact of the port wing against the sand dunes lying to the northeast of the aerodrome. As a result the pilot lost control of his aircraft and hit the ground.
It is probable that the cause of descent of the aircraft below the safe level was due to the change from IFR to VFR, taking into consideration that considerable time would have been needed for the pilot to have adapted to this change in the prevailing weather conditions."
Text from the Wikipedia article “United Arab Airlines Flight 749” (revision 1339297545, 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: United Arab Airlines Flight 749
- Revision
- 1339297545 · 2026-02-19 · retrieved 2026-09-18
- Wikidata
- Q7887394
- 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 "United Arab Airlines Flight 749" (page 36674245, revision 1339297545)
- Date
- Wikipedia infobox: date
- Place and country
- Wikipedia infobox: site
- Map position
- none
- Aircraft, operator and route
- Wikipedia infobox: aircraft type, registration, operator, origin and destination; route airports from the linked airport articles' Wikidata codes (OurAirports)
- Operation
- flight number in the article title
- Fatalities
- Wikipedia infobox: aircraft fatalities
- Ground fatalities
- not stated in the Wikipedia infobox
- 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.