Date:	Monday 26 April 1993
Time:	13:06
Type:	Boeing 737-2A8
Owner/operator:	Indian Airlines
Registration:	VT-ECQ
MSN:	20961/375
Year of manufacture:	1974
Total airframe hrs:	43886 hours
Engine model:	Pratt & Whitney JT8D-9A
Fatalities:	Fatalities: 55 / Occupants: 118
Aircraft damage:	Destroyed, written off
Category:	Accident
Location:	3 km NE of Aurangabad Airport (IXU) -   India
Phase:	Take off
Nature:	Passenger - Scheduled
Departure airport:	Aurangabad-Chikkalthana Airport (IXU/VAAU)
Destination airport:	Bombay-Sahar International Airport (BOM/VABB)
Confidence Rating:	Accident investigation report completed and information captured

Narrative:
Boeing 737 VT-ECQ was operating flight 491 from Delhi to Bombay with enroute stops at Jaipur, Udaipur and Aurangabad. The heavily laden aircraft started its takeoff roll from Aurangabad's runway 09 (which is approx 7500 feet long) in high temperatures (38-41deg C). After lifting off almost at the end of the runway, it impacted heavily with a lorry carrying pressed cotton bales on a highway at a distance of about 410 feet from the end of runway. The left main landing gear, left engine bottom cowling and thrust reverser impacted the left side of the truck at a height of nearly seven feet from the level of the road. Thereafter the aircraft hit the high tension electric wires nearly 3 km North-East of the runway and hit the ground.

PROBABLE CAUSE: "(i) Pilots' error in initiating late rotation and following wrong rotation technique, and (ii) failure of the NAA to regulate the mobile traffic on the Beed road during the flight hours".

Civil aviation aircraft accident summary for the year 1993 (DGAC India)

photo (c) via Werner Fischdick; Kathmandu-Tribhuvan Airport (KTM); August 1975

Date/time	Contributor	Updates