Garuda Indonesian Airways Flight 892
Convair CV-990-30A-5 · Crashed during the climb-out after take-off, cause unknown
From Kemayoran International Airport, Jakarta, Indonesia to Amsterdam Airport Schiphol (AMS)
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
- 1
- Occupants
- 29
- 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
- 17 · all on the ground
- 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
Convair CV-990-30A-5
- Flight
- GA892
- Aircraft type
- Convair CV-990
- 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
- PK-GJA
- Operator
- Garuda Indonesian Airways
- Onboard fatalities
- 29
- Route
- From Kemayoran International Airport, Jakarta, IndonesiaTo Amsterdam Airport Schiphol (AMS)
Approximate · Estimated position: Nallasopara, near the place the Wikipedia article names. Not the accident site.
From the Wikipedia article
On 28 May 1968, Garuda Indonesian Airways Flight 892, a scheduled international passenger flight from Jakarta to Amsterdam with stopovers in Singapore, Bangkok, Bombay, Karachi, Cairo, and Rome, crashed during the climb-out after take-off from Santa Cruz Airport for the flight's Bombay to Karachi leg. The Convair 990A jet airliner operating the flight went down at Bilalpada village near Nala Sopara, killing all 29 people on board and one person on the ground.
Flight history
Flight 892 arrived at Santa Cruz Airport (now Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport) in Bombay (now Mumbai) at 1:45 a.m. local time (8:15 p.m. UTC 27 May). Having originated from Jakarta at 6:00 p.m. local time (11:00 a.m. UTC) the previous evening with preceding stopovers in Singapore and Bangkok, the flight was the Jakarta to Amsterdam milk run service operated by Garuda Indonesian Airways (now Garuda Indonesia), which included stopovers in Singapore, Bangkok, Bombay, Karachi, Cairo, and Rome.
The stopover in Bombay was to offload and pick up passengers, change the operating crew, and refuel the aircraft before proceeding with the flight's next leg to Karachi and onwards until the final destination in Amsterdam. Eleven passengers were supposed to board the flight in Bombay, but a last-minute cancellation by five passengers reduced the number to six. Weather conditions were normal at Santa Cruz Airport at the time of the flight's departure from Bombay, with 15 passengers and 14 crew on board.
Accident
The aircraft took off from Santa Cruz Airport at 2:32 a.m. local time (9:02 p.m. UTC 27 May). About seven minutes later, the air traffic control at Santa Cruz Airport lost contact with the aircraft. The area control centre in Karachi, which had been in contact as the aircraft departed from Bombay, reported that they also lost contact with the aircraft. No distress calls were received before contact with the aircraft was lost.
The aircraft was then reported to have crashed about five minutes after the contact was lost, with the approximate crash site location to the east of Nalla Sopara railway station at the village of Bilalpada. The resultant explosion as the aircraft crashed into the ground carved a 20 ft crater at the crash site, and the aircraft's debris was strewn over an open area of almost 3 sqmi wide.
All 29 people on board the aircraft died in the crash that marked the first fatal accident involving a Convair 990, as well as the type's second hull loss. Seventeen people at Bilalpada village were injured, including two in serious condition. Three people had to get hospitalised; one was later pronounced dead. Besides human casualties, the crash also destroyed four huts and a school shed. Moreover, some of the burning debris from the aircraft hit and set ablaze a stable, killing 19 buffaloes.
Investigation and cause
Investigation
In the hours after the accident, representatives from the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (India) visited the crash site and conducted a preliminary investigation. A joint team from Indonesia, which included representatives from the Directorate of Civil Aviation (Indonesia) and Garuda Indonesian Airways, was also despatched to Bombay to join the investigation. Led by Karno Barkah of the Directorate of Civil Aviation (Indonesia), the team arrived in Bombay the following day.
During the search and recovery process, several pieces of debris from the aircraft were found at the top of a 60 ft tree, with one side of its foliage scorched. A few days later, the search team found two of the aircraft's four engines. The two badly damaged engines, which were found at an approximate depth of 2 m, were from the starboard wing of the aircraft. Meanwhile, the two engines on the port wing were presumed to have been destroyed. Besides the engines, the search team also found debris of the remaining fuselage and belongings of the crew and the passengers. The search ended after 19 days, during which the aircraft's flight recorder had never been found.
The cause of the accident remains unknown to date, although there was an official court of inquiry in India to determine it. The court of inquiry was chaired by Y. S. Tambe, a retired Chief Justice of the Bombay High Court, with accredited representatives from the governments of India, Indonesia, and the United States, and the accident report was reportedly expected in January 1970.
However, a source citing the investigation noted that the jet airliner was presumed to have been refuelled with avgas instead of kerosene-based avtur during the stopover in Bombay. The misfuelling was alleged to have caused all of the aircraft's four engines to suffer a partial or total failure during the climb-out, causing the pilots to lose control of the aircraft. The aircraft then entered a nosedive until it crashed in an almost vertical attitude.
Text from the Wikipedia article “Garuda Indonesian Airways Flight 892” (revision 1372388277, 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: Garuda Indonesian Airways Flight 892
- Revision
- 1372388277 · 2026-08-31 · retrieved 2026-09-18
- Wikidata
- Q90500139
- 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 "Garuda Indonesian Airways Flight 892" (page 68151739, revision 1372388277)
- Date
- Wikipedia infobox: date
- Place and country
- Wikipedia infobox: site
- Map position
- place the Wikipedia infobox site links (Wikidata 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.