Middle East Airlines Flight 438
Boeing 720-023B · Terrorist bombing
From Beirut Rafic Hariri International Airport (BEY) to Muscat International Airport (MCT)
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
- 81 · all aircraft and ground
- Ground fatalities
- Unknown
- Occupants
- 81
- 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
Boeing 720-023B
- Flight
- ME438
- Aircraft type
- Boeing 720
- 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
- OD-AFT
- Operator
- Middle East Airlines
- Onboard fatalities
- 81
- Route
- From Beirut Rafic Hariri International Airport (BEY)To Muscat International Airport (MCT)
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
Middle East Airlines Flight 438 was an international passenger flight operated by a Boeing 720 from Beirut, Lebanon, to Muscat, Oman, with a stopover in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. On 1 January 1976, the aircraft operating the flight was destroyed at 11,300 feet by a bomb, killing all 81 people on board. The bombers were never identified.
Bombing
Flight 438 was an international passenger flight from Beirut, Lebanon to Muscat, Oman, with a stopover in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. With 15 crew members and 66 passengers (other sources stated that there were 67 passengers) on board, flight 438 departed from Beirut. In the predawn twilight, the airliner was en route from Beirut to Dubai when at 05:30, 1 hour and 40 minutes after departure, a bomb exploded in the front section of the cargo hold. The aircraft broke up at an altitude of 11300 m and crashed 37 km (23 mi) northwest of Qaisumah, Saudi Arabia. The crash was the deadliest aviation disaster to occur in Saudi Arabia at the time, and is now the sixth-deadliest. It is also the second-deadliest aviation disaster involving the Boeing 720, behind Pakistan International Airlines Flight 705.
Investigation and cause
Investigation
According to several reports, the bomb was planted on board by Omani militants. The bomb timer was set so that the bomb would explode after landing at Muscat airport. Killing the passengers was not the goal of the militants. Flight 438 was originally going to be operated by a Boeing 747, but a technical malfunction was discovered, requiring a Boeing 720 to be used instead. Boarding and baggage loading delayed the flight, causing the bomb to explode early while the aircraft was still cruising.
Text from the Wikipedia article “Middle East Airlines Flight 438” (revision 1367336085, 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: Middle East Airlines Flight 438
- Revision
- 1367336085 · 2026-08-02 · retrieved 2026-09-18
- Wikidata
- Q6841321
- 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 "Middle East Airlines Flight 438" (page 9919344, revision 1367336085)
- 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
- airline flight number in the infobox
- 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.