GAS Air Cargo Boeing 707 accident near Karm Umran
Boeing 707-351C and Unknown · Fuel exhaustion
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
- 1
- 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
- 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
Aircraft 1 · Boeing 707-351C
- Aircraft type
- Boeing 707
- 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
- 5N-AYJ
- Operator
- GAS Air Cargo
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Julius Nyerere International Airport (DAR)To Brussels Airport (BRU)
Aircraft 2 · Unknown
- 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
- Unknown
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From not recordedTo not recorded
Approximate · Coordinates from the Wikipedia article; not checked against an investigation report.
From the Wikipedia article
The crash of a GAS Air Cargo Boeing 707 near Karm Umran occurred on 13 December 1988, when a cargo aircraft of the type Boeing 707-351C of the Nigerian GAS Air Nigeria (General Air Services) was to operate a cargo flight from Dar es Salaam Airport in Tanzania to Brussels-Zaventem Airport in Belgium. A stopover at Cairo International Airport in Egypt was planned, but the pilots diverted to Luxor because of the weather conditions in Cairo. On the way there the aircraft crashed. Nine people were killed in the accident.
Flight and accident sequence
The aircraft's flight had begun in Dar es Salaam in Tanzania and was to lead to Brussels-Zaventem Airport. A refuelling stopover was planned at Cairo International Airport. On arrival in Cairo the weather was very poor, with visibility of around 400 metres. After two missed approaches at 20:53 and 21:07, the crew decided to divert to Luxor Airport, located around 600 kilometres further south. However, the aircraft never arrived there. At 21:50, during a failed emergency landing, the aircraft crashed into a residential area near Karm Umran on the Nile, around 45 kilometres north of Luxor. In addition to the eight people on board the aircraft, one person on the ground was also killed.
Cause of the accident
In the view of the Egyptian accident investigators, the cause of the accident was fuel exhaustion resulting from repeated missed approaches to Cairo, which were continued until there was no longer enough fuel left to reach the alternate airport in Luxor.
The selection of an alternate airport that was too far away may have played a further role. In the Nile Delta, various closer alternate airports would have been available, for example in Alexandria. Even the straight-line distance from Cairo to Sharm el-Sheikh or Hurghada is shorter than that to Luxor. On flights from Cairo to Luxor, however, the Nile is available as a visual reference.
Translated into English with AI assistance from the German Wikipedia article “Flugunfall einer Boeing 707 der GAS Air Cargo bei Karm Umran” (revision 258179693, retrieved 2026-09-19) by its authors, under CC BY-SA 4.0. Extracted as plain text: references, tables, images and some sections are left out; the translation may contain errors, and long articles were cut to their first 700 words. Read the article
Sources
German Wikipedia article: Flugunfall einer Boeing 707 der GAS Air Cargo bei Karm Umran
- Translation
- Into English with AI assistance; names of linked operators and aircraft types from Wikidata. It may contain errors.
- Revision
- 258179693 · 2025-07-21 · retrieved 2026-09-19
- Wikidata
- Q65235411
- 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
- de Wikipedia article "Flugunfall einer Boeing 707 der GAS Air Cargo bei Karm Umran" (page 10766732, revision 258179693), translated into English with AI assistance
- Date
- Wikipedia infobox: date
- Place and country
- Wikipedia infobox: site
- Map position
- Wikipedia article 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
- Reviewed correction (2026-09-26): A Nigerian cargo operator's Boeing 707 on an international cargo flight from Tanzania to Belgium: an airline cargo flight. The article: "a cargo aircraft of the type Boeing 707-351C of the Nigerian GAS Air Nigeria (General Air Services) was to operate a cargo flight from Dar es Salaam Airport in Tanzania to Brussels-Zaventem Airport in Belgium"
- Fatalities
- Wikipedia infobox: total_fatalities
- Ground fatalities
- Wikipedia infobox: ground fatalities
- Summary
- Wikipedia article lead
Source notes (1)
- Wikipedia · Facts from the German Wikipedia article's infobox, translated into English with AI assistance, not checked against an investigation report. Independent review pending.