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Hinduja Cargo Services Flight 8533

7 Jul 1999 · Champadevi Hills, near Kathmandu, Nepal

Hinduja Cargo Services on behalf of Lufthansa Cargo Boeing 727-243F · Controlled flight into terrain due to pilot error and ATC error

From Tribhuvan International Airport (KTM) to Indira Gandhi International Airport (DEL)

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Event

NTSB case
DCA99WA068
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
Unknown · led by another country; figures from NTSB notifications
Event fatalities
5 · all aircraft and ground
Ground fatalities
Unknown
Occupants
Unknown
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 727-243F

Flight
LF8533
Aircraft type
Boeing 727
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
VT-LCI
Onboard fatalities
5
Route
From Tribhuvan International Airport (KTM)To Indira Gandhi International Airport (DEL)
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

No findings designated as a cause are recorded in the NTSB data yet.

Approximate · Estimated position: Kathmandu, near the place the Wikipedia article names. Not the accident site.

From the Wikipedia article

Hinduja Cargo Services Flight 8533 was a scheduled cargo flight from Tribhuvan International Airport in Nepal to Indira Gandhi International Airport in India operated by Lufthansa Cargo's Indian subsidiary Hinduja Cargo Services. On 7 July 1999, the Boeing 727 operating the flight crashed into the Champadevi Hills at 2200 m altitude with no survivors amongst the 5 occupants on board.

Flight

The flight was carrying 21 tons of cargo, mostly textiles and carpets. The flight departed Runway 20 at Kathmandu's Tribhuvan International Airport. After take-off the flight made a 10-degree bank to the right to a heading of 247 at 4.4DME. The power applied on the engines was inadvertently reduced resulting in the aircraft losing height in an area where the altitude of any departing flight must be above 9,500 ft while VT-LCI was at 7,500 ft. The Ground Proximity Warning System (GPWS) activated with a terrain warning in the cockpit. The speed was reduced to 171 kn causing the stick shaker to activate. VT-LCI impacted the Champadevi Hills at 7:51 p.m. local time with no survivors.

Text from the Wikipedia article “Hinduja Cargo Services Flight 8533” (revision 1359578415, 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: Hinduja Cargo Services Flight 8533
Article
Hinduja Cargo Services Flight 8533
Revision
1359578415 · 2026-06-16 · retrieved 2026-09-18
Wikidata
Q90500563
Licence
Text CC BY-SA 4.0, by the article's authors; Wikidata CC0; town positions GeoNames (CC BY 4.0)
NTSB record DCA99WA068
Event ID
20001212X19231
Case number
DCA99WA068
Dataset
historical-pre2008
Source SHA-256
89e2df6d848e7ab3b42e7d7c7a03ff403303057a26ca04c95b3ea67201c3ce74
Where each value comes from
Record
Wikipedia article "Hinduja Cargo Services Flight 8533" (page 69332825, revision 1359578415); merged with NTSB case DCA99WA068 (events / aircraft)
Date
Wikipedia infobox: date
Place and country
Wikipedia infobox: site
Map position
Wikipedia: 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); gaps and aircraft details from NTSB record DCA99WA068
Operation
airline flight number in the infobox
Fatalities
Wikipedia: Wikipedia infobox: aircraft fatalities
Ground fatalities
Wikipedia: not stated in the Wikipedia infobox
Summary
Wikipedia infobox: summary
Source notes (2)
  • One occurrence in two sources, merged: the Wikipedia article "Hinduja Cargo Services Flight 8533" and NTSB case DCA99WA068, 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.