1988 Arax Airlines Douglas DC-8 accident near Cairo
Douglas DC-8-55(F) · Loss of control
From Billund Airport (BLL) to Sharjah International Airport (SHJ)
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
- 4 · 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
- 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
Douglas DC-8-55(F)
- Aircraft type
- Douglas DC-8
- 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-ARH
- Operator
- Arax Airlines
- Onboard fatalities
- 4
- Route
- From Billund Airport (BLL)To Sharjah International Airport (SHJ)
Cause areas
- Aircraft › Aircraft power plant
From the investigation findings the Wikipedia article reports, sorted into the NTSB's cause areas with AI assistance.
Approximate · Estimated position: Cairo, near the place the Wikipedia article names. Not the accident site.
From the Wikipedia article
The 1988 Arax Airlines Douglas DC-8 accident near Cairo occurred on a cargo flight of Arax Airlines from Billund to Sharjah with a scheduled intermediate stop in Cairo, which was operated on 31 March 1988. The Douglas DC-8-55(F) aircraft used on this flight crashed shortly beyond the runway after an engine failure during take-off in Cairo. The four occupants on board were killed in the accident.
Accident sequence
The aircraft was operating a cargo flight from Billund to Sharjah, with an intermediate stop planned in Cairo. In Cairo a take-off with a rejected take-off had already been carried out with the aircraft before it taxied again for take-off from runway 27R. During the take-off attempt the aircraft stalled, and the DC-8 crashed to the ground at 04:07 local time about 700 metres beyond the end of the runway, being destroyed and killing all four occupants.
Investigation and cause
Cause
The accident investigation found that one of the aircraft's engines had suffered an engine failure and fire. The affected engine had caught fire during the take-off attempt and the aircraft had then crashed. The investigators were furthermore able to establish that the first rejected take-off had also been initiated for similar reasons.
Translated into English with AI assistance from the German Wikipedia article “Flugunfall einer Douglas DC-8 der Arax Airlines bei Kairo 1988” (revision 256415964, 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 Douglas DC-8 der Arax Airlines bei Kairo 1988
- Translation
- Into English with AI assistance; names of linked operators and aircraft types from Wikidata. It may contain errors.
- Revision
- 256415964 · 2025-05-27 · retrieved 2026-09-19
- Wikidata
- Q114571253
- 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 Douglas DC-8 der Arax Airlines bei Kairo 1988" (page 12398492, revision 256415964), translated into English with AI assistance
- 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
- operator named as an airline in the infobox
- Fatalities
- Wikipedia infobox: aircraft fatalities
- Ground fatalities
- not stated in the Wikipedia infobox
- 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.