This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources:  "Libyan Arab Airlines Flight 1103" –  news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (November 2015) ( Learn how and when to remove this template message)

Libyan Arab Airlines Flight 1103

Accident
Date	22 December 1992
Summary	Disputed Mid-air collision on approach (official) Deliberate mid-air collision (alleged) Shootdown (alleged)
Site	Near Tripoli International Airport, Tripoli, Libya
Total fatalities	157
Total survivors	2
First aircraft
5A-DIA, the Boeing 727 involved, in May 1986
Type	Boeing 727-2L5 [note 1]
Operator	Libyan Arab Airlines
Registration	5A-DIA
Flight origin	Benina International Airport
Destination	Tripoli International Airport
Occupants	157
Passengers	147
Crew	10
Fatalities	157
Survivors	0
Second aircraft
A Libyan Air Force MiG-23, similar to the one involved
Type	Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-23UB
Operator	Libyan Air Force
Registration	8428
Occupants	2
Crew	2
Fatalities	0
Survivors	2

Libyan Arab Airlines Flight 1103 was a Boeing 727-200 with 10 crew and 147 passengers on board that collided with a LARAF Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-23UB on 22 December 1992. All 157 people on board flight 1103 were killed, while the crew of the MiG-23 ejected and survived. It was the deadliest aviation disaster to occur in Libya at the time. ^[1]

Crash

On 22 December 1992 Flight 1103 took off from Benina International Airport near Benghazi on a domestic flight to Tripoli International Airport under the command of 41-year-old Captain Ali al-Faqih, 32-year-old First Officer Mahmoud Issa, and 36-year-old Flight Engineer Salem Abu-Sitta. At an altitude of 3,500 ft (1,070 m) during the Boeing 727's approach to Tripoli airport, the aircraft tail collided with a Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-23 right wing and disintegrated, resulting in the death of all 157 passengers and crew. ^[2] The two crew members of the MiG-23, 38-year-old Major Abdul-Majid al-Tayari and 32-year-old Lieutenant Colonel Ahmed Abu-Sneina, ejected before impact and survived.

Investigation and aftermath

The official explanation and air accident investigation report both blamed a collision with a Libyan Air Force MiG-23; the pilot and instructor of the MiG were imprisoned. ^{[3] [4]}

After the crash, a spokesman for the Libyan Civil Authority stated he had been forbidden from releasing any information about the crash, including which planes had been involved. ^[5] A mass grave was prepared for the victims outside of Tripoli with poor international relations denying the bodies of international victims being returned to their families. ^[6]

Twenty years later, after the fall and death of Muammar Gaddafi, Major al-Tayari, the instructor in the MiG-23 aircraft, challenged the official version of events, claiming that Flight 1103 was deliberately destroyed, because he saw its tail falling before his aircraft suffered a strong impact (from either the shock wave of the explosion that destroyed the Boeing 727 or a piece of wreckage) and he was forced to eject from his aircraft along with his trainee, Lieutenant Colonel Abu-Sneina. ^[7] In a statement al-Tayari claims there was no air collision, but conceded that the planes were too close to one another. ^[8]

Ali Aujali, who served as a Libyan diplomat both under Gaddafi and under the National Transitional Council, claims that Gaddafi ordered that the Boeing 727, whose flight was assigned the number 1103, be shot down exactly four years to the day after the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 in order to demonstrate the negative effects of international sanctions imposed on Libya. ^[9] According to Aujali, the dictator originally ordered a bomb with a timer to be in the aircraft, but when this failed to explode, he "ordered the [aircraft] to be knocked out of the sky". ^[10] The widow of one British victim has claimed Libyan families of victims had asked if she had tested her husband's passports for explosive residue. ^[11]

Memorials

The first memorial for the crash was held near Tripoli, Libya in 2012. ^[11] The ceremony was attended by families and friends of the victims, and politicians. ^[12]

See also

• Hughes Airwest Flight 706
• All Nippon Airways Flight 58
• Gol Transportes Aéreos Flight 1907
• 1983 Negev mid-air collision
• Iran Air Flight 655
• 1993 Tehran mid-air collision
• 1997 Israeli helicopter disaster

Notes

References

• " Boeing 727 Crashes in Libya". Flight International, 6–12 January 1993. p. 8.

External links

• Al-Jazeera documentary on Flight 1103 on YouTube