Hinduja Cargo Services Flight 8533

Hinduja Cargo Services Flight 8533 was a scheduled cargo flight from Tribhuvan International Airport in Nepal to Indira Gandhi International Airport in India operated by Lufthansa Cargo's Indian subsidiary Hinduja Cargo Services. On 7 July 1999, the Boeing 727 operating the flight crashed into the Champadevi Hills at altitude with no survivors amongst the 5 occupants on board.

Aircraft and crew

The aircraft was a 17 year old Boeing 727-200 Freighter plane. It was delivered previously to Alitalia in 1981 as I-DIRS with Continental Airlines too operating the airframe as N586PE and N14416 before delivery to Hinduja Cargo Services as VT-LCI. There were five crew members on board, namely Gonjalez, Shahni, Vargava, Singh and Roy.

Flight

The flight was carrying 21 tons of cargo, mostly textiles and carpets. The flight departed Runway 20 at Kathmandu's Tribhuvan International Airport. After take-off the flight made a 10-degree bank to the right to a heading of 247 at 4.4DME. The power applied on the engines was inadvertently reduced resulting in the aircraft losing height in an area where the altitude of any departing flight must be above while VT-LCI was at. The Ground Proximity Warning System (GPWS) activated with a terrain warning in the cockpit. The speed was reduced to causing the stick shaker to activate. VT-LCI impacted the Champadevi Hills at 7:51 p.m. local time with no survivors.