Indian Airlines Flight 117
Boeing 737-2A8 · Collision with a person during landing
From Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport (BOM) to Hyderabad-Begumpet Airport, Telangana, India
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
- 1 · all aircraft and ground (occupants minus survivors)
- Ground fatalities
- 1
- Occupants
- Unknown
- Survivors
- 105
- 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 737-2A8
- Aircraft type
- Boeing 737
- 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-EFL
- Operator
- Indian Airlines
- Onboard fatalities
- 0 (occupants minus survivors)
- Route
- From Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport (BOM)To Hyderabad-Begumpet Airport, Telangana, India
Cause areas
- Environmental issues › Operating environment
From the investigation findings the Wikipedia article reports, sorted into the NTSB's cause areas with AI assistance.
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
Indian Airlines Flight 117 was a domestic scheduled flight of Indian Airlines from Bombay to Hyderabad. On 12 January 1978 a fatal incident occurred on this flight. When the Boeing 737-2A8 Adv. (VT-EFL), carrying 105 people, touched down on the runway of Hyderabad-Begumpet Airport, the pilots noticed a person on the runway. The man was killed in the unavoidable collision.
Sequence of events
The flight from Bombay to Hyderabad had proceeded without particular incident. The pilots had received clearance to land on runway 09 of Hyderabad Airport. They carried this out routinely at 18:57 local time. At the moment the aircraft touched down, the captain caught sight of a man walking across the centreline of the runway with his back to the aircraft. The captain could no longer avoid the collision. The aircraft struck the pedestrian with full force, and the man died from the collision.
Investigation and cause
Cause
The cause of the accident was determined to be the entry of an unauthorised person into the airport's security area.
Translated into English with AI assistance from the German Wikipedia article “Indian-Airlines-Flug 117” (revision 258178124, 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: Indian-Airlines-Flug 117
- Article
- Indian-Airlines-Flug 117
- Translation
- Into English with AI assistance; names of linked operators and aircraft types from Wikidata. It may contain errors.
- Revision
- 258178124 · 2025-07-21 · retrieved 2026-09-19
- Wikidata
- Q84955171
- 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 "Indian-Airlines-Flug 117" (page 10948831, revision 258178124), translated into English with AI assistance
- 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
- flight number in the article title
- Fatalities
- Wikipedia infobox: aircraft fatalities plus ground fatalities (aircraft occupants minus survivors)
- Ground fatalities
- Wikipedia infobox: ground fatalities
- Summary
- Wikipedia article lead
Source notes (2)
- Wikipedia · Facts from the German Wikipedia article's infobox, translated into English with AI assistance, not checked against an investigation report. Independent review pending.
- The Wikipedia infobox's fatality count includes the ground fatalities (its survivors account for everyone else aboard); those aboard who died are that count minus the ground fatalities.