Indian Airlines Flight 503
HAL Dornier 228 · Uncommanded pitch-up and stall due to horizontal stabiliser failure caused by improper maintenance
From Agatti Airport (AGX) to Thiruvananthapuram International Airport (TRV)
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
- 9 · all aircraft and ground
- Ground fatalities
- 3
- 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
- 6 · 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
HAL Dornier 228
- Flight
- IC503
- Aircraft type
- Hal Dornier 228
- 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
- VT-EJW
- Operator
- Indian Airlines
- Onboard fatalities
- 6
- Route
- From Agatti Airport (AGX)To Thiruvananthapuram International Airport (TRV)
Cause areas
- Aircraft › Aircraft handling/service
- Aircraft › Aircraft systems
From the investigation findings the Wikipedia article reports, sorted into the NTSB's cause areas with AI assistance.
Approximate · Estimated position: Kochi, near the place the Wikipedia article names. Not the accident site.
From the Wikipedia article
Indian Airlines Flight 503 was a scheduled flight operated by Indian Airlines between Agatti and Thiruvananthapuram, with a stopover in Kochi. On 30 July 1998, the Dornier 228 aircraft crashed shortly after takeoff from Kochi killing all six people on board and three people on the ground.
Flight information
The flight originated in Agatti, Lakshadweep and was headed for Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala after a stopover at Kochi as Indian Airlines flight 503. Kochi had a naval airport where the Airports Authority of India operated a civil enclave.
The flight was commanded by Captain Shiv Raj Singh with Captain Manish Sharma as co-pilot. The captain had 5,000 hours of flight time on the Dornier while the co-pilot had over 2,000 hours. The only other crew member on board the aircraft was the flight purser, Sajid. There were only three passengers on board the sixteen-seater aircraft, none of whom survived. Three people on the ground were also killed, while six others suffered injuries. The passengers, crew and victims on the ground were all admitted to INHS Sanjivani for treatment.
The aircraft took off from runway 17 of the airport at 11:04am local time. After reaching about 400 feet (122 metres) in its initial climb, it pitched up steeply and entered a stall before banking right, entering an uncontrolled descent and crashing into a workshop building near the naval hangar. The aircraft burst into flames on impact and was destroyed. Crash tenders responded swiftly and four of the victims, alive but critically injured, were moved to a hospital within 15 minutes of the crash.
Investigation and cause
Investigation
The Directorate General of Civil Aviation ordered an investigation into the accident and a three-member Committee of Inquiry headed by Air Marshal P. Raj Kumar was constituted under the Aircraft Rules, 1937. The Committee in its report made 49 findings and 7 recommendations and stated that "poor aircraft maintenance practices at Short Haul Operations Department had contributed to the accident". It found that the aircraft had pitched up uncontrollably after takeoff and that this was the result of a "sudden uncommanded downward movement of the Trimmable Horizontal Stabilizer leading edge. This was due to partial detachment of its actuator forward bearing support fitting due to non-installation of required hi-lok fasteners." Consequently, the aircraft "stalled, fell to its right and crashed."
Indian Airlines paid 76.87 lakh (roughly US$195,000) as compensation to the victims and received 5 crore (US$1.27 million) from its insurers towards loss of the aircraft.
Text from the Wikipedia article “Indian Airlines Flight 503” (revision 1368480687, 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: Indian Airlines Flight 503
- Article
- Indian Airlines Flight 503
- Revision
- 1368480687 · 2026-08-09 · retrieved 2026-09-18
- Wikidata
- Q119683909
- 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 "Indian Airlines Flight 503" (page 73951869, revision 1368480687)
- 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.