Fatal Delay | No One Has Ever Left This Aircraft | Up in Flames | Saudia Flight 163

August 19, 1980 Riyadh Airport, Saudi Arabia TheFlightChannel PRESENTS IN FLAMES (Saudia Flight 163) Saudia Flight 163 is a Passenger Flight between Riyadh and Jeddah, Saudi Arabia There are 287 passengers and 14 crew members on board The Lockheed Tristar L- 1011-200, the

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operating Flight 163, now takes off from Riyadh Flight 163 is under the command of Captain M.A.K. (Age 38) He is not a gifted pilot. Files show that he is a slow learner and needs more training than usual The Co-pilot is First Officer S. A. M. H. (Age 26) He was once removed from

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school for poor performance Also on board is Flight Engineer B.C. (Age42) He failed as an Airplane Pilot and as a Co-pilot He had to pay for his training as it was the only way to continue with his job The

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crew in general does not inspire much confidence Almost seven minutes into the flight, While the plane is climbing to 35,000 Feet (10,668 Meters), the Crew receives an alert Flight Engineer: "B" AFT CARGO Captain: What?

Flight Engineer: "B" AFT POSITION First Officer: What is happening? Flight Engineer: Smoke detection. B AFT CHARGE. The Crew receives a smoke alarm from Cargo Compartment "A" and "B" are two smoke detectors located in the AFT CARGO HOLD located near the tail of the airplane Flight Engineer: There is "A" Captain: What? Flight Engineer: Now it's "A." Both of them. Captain: So we should go back, right? Flight Engineer: "A" and "B" AFT CARGO smoke detection Captain So we have smoke there? Flight Engineer: I would say yes Captain: And what is the procedure for that in the Review Lists?

Flight Engineer: I'm reviewing. Pilots need to see what to do in the Operations Manual. The actions they should take are located under "Emergency in abnormal procedures" But the Flight Engineer suffers from Dyslexia or "Word Blindness" so he cannot read the manual easily or even his instruments Both smoke detectors suddenly go off Engineer Flight: Both went out Captain: So that's current right? Flight Engineer: That should ah... I would say current, yes. The Flight Crew is still unsure about what to do about the alerts Captain: There's nothing in Abnormal Procedures, huh? Flight Engineer: Nothing about that. Should I go back and see if I can find something or smell something?

The next four minutes were spent by the crew trying to confirm the alerts, with the flight engineer going back into the cockpit to confirm the presence of smoke in the rear of the airplane Flight Engineer: If I see or smell something, I think You should return Captain: Surely, check it out. The Flight Engineer leaves the Flight Deck First Officer: Strange, no procedure for that Captain: No procedure for that? Tell them we will be returning In the back of the cabin, thick smoke begins to fill the plane Captain to the First Officer: We better return to Riyadh... ...look at the abnormal... ...by the way, he He is a donkey (the Flight Engineer), in the abnormal.

He is on the Review Lists. The Flight Engineer returns to the Flight Cockpit Flight Engineer: Hey, we've got a fire back there! Captain: Do we have? Flight Engineer: Yes, we have it Captain to First Officer: Tell him (The Air Controller) that we are returning First Officer to Controller: 163, we are returning to Riyadh Riyadh Controller: Authorized to r

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se course to Riyadh, and state the reason An assistant flight suddenly enters the flight cabin Flight Attendant: Fire! Fire! Fire in the cabin! First Officer to Controller: Saudia 163, we have fire in the cabin, and please alert the fire trucks Flight Engineer: There goes "A" Captain: The Fire is now melting the floor of the cabin Flight Attendant: Stay seated .

Everyone, please stay seated. The flight attendants desperately try to extinguish the fire without success. The Number Two Engine Leveler (Center Engine) is now stuck due to the fire burning over the operating cables Captain: OKAY the engine l

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2 is not retracting. It's stuck. Captain: Where is the Airport? First Officer: There is the road to the airport, the yellow lights are the road to the airport The Pilots now turn off Engine n.2 The Cabin Crew did not have the order to prepare the cabin and passengers for an Emergency Evacuation Flight Attendant : Should we evacuate? Captain: What? Flight Attendant: Did you say we should evacuate the passengers?

Flight Engineer: Say it again? Flight Attendant: Can we evacuate all passengers? Captain: Flaps 10, please Flight Engineer: When we are on the ground, yes Flight Attendant: OK, after we are on the ground, yes Captain: Tell them not to evacuate Flight Engineer: No need, we are fine. No problem. No problem For some reason, the pilots believe that the fire in the back of the plane is not serious The plane lands safely in Riyadh In a situation like

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, the pilots must stop the plane and let people get off as quickly as possible But for unknown reasons, the captain does not stop the plane.

The plane continues down the runway while slowing down. The plane exits onto a taxiway at the end of the runway, stopping there 2 minutes and 48 seconds after landing. The fire crew does not try. to open the doors immediately because the engines are still running Finally, the pilots shut down the engines 3 minutes and 15 seconds after the plane stopped No external fire was visible at that time, but

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were observed through the windows in the rear of the plane 23 Minutes after turning off the engines, door R2 (Second Door on the right side) was opened by ground personnel 3 Minutes later, the plane burst into

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, and was consumed by fire Everyone died Due to smoke inhalation and not from fire This dignifies that more died before the door R2 was opened The investigation revealed that the fire started in the cargo compartment AFT C3 The fire was intense enough to burn the floor of the cabin Saudi officials They subsequently found two butane stoves in the burned items on the plane, and a fire extinguisher near it.

Early speculation was that the fire that started in the passenger cabin was when a passenger used his own butane stove to boil water for tea. However,

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was unable to be verified among the findings of the official accident report. The FAA filed a lawsuit. lawsuit against Lockheed, Saudia and Trans World Airlines, an American airline that trained Saudi pilots and supervised Saudi's maintenance program The FAA said that Lockheed allowed "Hazardous Materials" to be incorporated into its fuselage, which had no ventilation system to distribute the gases to passengers, and that a sufficient oxygen system did not exist. The FAA further accused Saudia of failing to properly maintain the

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and provide passenger safety, and accused TWA of failing to properly maintain Saudia's aircraft and train appropriately to the Crew After the event, the airline reviewed training and emergency procedures.

Lockheed also removed the insulation above the rear cargo area and added a sheet of glass for structural reinforcement. The NTSB recommended that the plane use Halomethane extinguishers instead of traditional hand-held fire extinguishers. In memory of the passengers and crew of Flight 163 Created by TheFlightChannel