India’s Worst Airplane Crash : 12th November 1996, 03:55 PM. The city of Shymkent in Kazakhstan. A chartered Kazakhstan Airlines aircraft took off from this city flying towards New Delhi. Several small traders from neighbouring Kyrgyzstan were on board. They were going to India to buy wool, so that they could bring it back and sell it in Central Asian markets. Around the same time, in Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International Airport.
A Saudi Airlines flight was getting ready to take off. There were 312 passengers on the flight, of whom 231 were Indians. They were blue-collar workers, construction workers or domestic workers. On their way to Saudi Arabia to look for work, so that they could earn money for their families.
The Saudi Airlines flight took off from the Delhi airport. That evening, Air Traffic Controller VK Dutta was on duty. He was communicating with both Saudi and Kazakhstan planes, and was guiding them. He was the one to give clearance to the Saudi airplane to take off from the Delhi airport. A few minutes later, the pilots of the Saudi plane reported to him, that the plane had reached the height of 10,000 ft. They request clearance to go up to 14,000 ft. Dutta grants permission.
