Indian Airlines HAL 748 accident near Hyderabad
Hindustan HAL 748-224 Srs. 2 · Loss of control after pilot errors by an intoxicated crew
From Hyderabad-Begumpet Airport, India to Hyderabad-Begumpet Airport, 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
- 5 · 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
Hindustan HAL 748-224 Srs. 2
- Aircraft type
- Hindustan HAL-748
- 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-EAU
- Operator
- Indian Airlines
- Onboard fatalities
- 4
- Route
- From Hyderabad-Begumpet Airport, IndiaTo Hyderabad-Begumpet Airport, India
Cause areas
- Personnel issues › Task performance
- Personnel issues › Physical
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
The Indian Airlines HAL 748 accident near Hyderabad occurred on 15 March 1973 on an Indian Airlines training flight carried out with a Hindustan HAL 748-224 Srs. 2 at Hyderabad-Begumpet Airport. All three occupants as well as one person on the ground were killed in the accident.
Accident sequence
On the day of the accident the aircraft was being used for a training flight. Immediately after takeoff the left propeller was feathered in order to practise flying a traffic circuit with only one active engine in bad weather. As the aircraft was flying a right turn at the end of the downwind leg, at 16:50 local time the right wingtip struck high-voltage cables and treetops. The aircraft then crashed onto a house and caught fire. All three crew members and one person on the ground died in the accident.
Investigation and cause
Cause
The accident was attributed to a series of errors on the part of the check captain and the trainee pilots. These were said to have been caused by the pilots having consumed alcohol before the flight and having been impaired in their concentration, their judgement and their flying skills.
Translated into English with AI assistance from the German Wikipedia article “Flugunfall einer HAL 748 der Indian Airlines bei Hyderabad” (revision 258179900, 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 HAL 748 der Indian Airlines bei Hyderabad
- Translation
- Into English with AI assistance; names of linked operators and aircraft types from Wikidata. It may contain errors.
- Revision
- 258179900 · 2025-07-21 · retrieved 2026-09-19
- Wikidata
- Q123573840
- 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 HAL 748 der Indian Airlines bei Hyderabad" (page 12900852, revision 258179900), 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
- operator named as an airline in the infobox
- Fatalities
- Wikipedia infobox: aircraft fatalities plus ground 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.