Pakistan International Airlines Flight 268

Aircraft The aircraft involved was a 16-year-old Airbus A300B4-103 registered as AP-BCP with serial number 025. The aircraft was built in 1976. The aircraft had a total of 39,045 flying hours and 19,172 flight cycles at the time of the accident. had 5,289 flight hours, with 2,516 of them on the Airbus A300. The 42-year-old observing flight engineer Muhammad Ashraf had 8,220 flight hours, including 4,503 hours on the Airbus A300. ==Accident==

Flight 268 departed Karachi at 11:13 AM Pakistan Standard Time for Kathmandu. Upon contacting Nepalese air traffic control, the aircraft was cleared for an approach from the south called the Sierra approach. An aircraft cleared to use this approach was at the time directed to pass over a reporting point called "Romeo" located 41 nautical miles (76 km) south of the Kathmandu VOR (or at 41 DME) at an altitude of 15,000 feet. The aircraft was to then descend in seven steps to 5,800 feet, passing over a reporting point known as "Sierra" located at 10 DME at an altitude of 9,500 feet, before landing at Kathmandu. This approach allowed aircraft to pass over the Mahabharat Range directly south of Kathmandu (the crest of which is located just north of the Sierra reporting point) at a safe altitude. Shortly after reporting at 10 DME, at 2.30 pm the aircraft crashed at approximately into the side of the 8,250 ft (2,524 m) mountain at Bhattedanda, disintegrating on impact, instantly killing all on board; the tail fin separated and fell into the forest at the base of the mountainside. This accident occurred 59 days after Thai Airways International Flight 311 crashed north of Kathmandu. ==Victims==

After the accident, the Nepali Military assisted with investigators to find the aircraft's black box. The investigation was handled by Andrew Robinson from the Air Accident Investigation Branch (AAIB). The black box was initially sent to Paris for decoding. At the time of impact, eye witnesses near the accident site confirmed that there was little to no wind or rain and no thunderstorms in the area. Investigators found no technical problems documented for the A300 and, after considering it as a cause, subsequently ruled out terrorism. The report recommended that ICAO review navigational charts and encourage their standardisation, and that the approach to Kathmandu Airport be changed to be less complex. ==Memorials==

PIA paid for the Lele PIA Memorial Park at Lele, at the foot of a mountain about 10 km north of the accident site. In 2012 they ceased paying for the maintenance of the site, the funding of which was then left to relatives of the victims of the accident. In 2023 the local district council took responsibility for the preservation and development of the site. An organisation named Rupak Memorial Foundation was formed in Nepal to tribute Nepal national football team former captain and FIFA referee Rupak Raj Sharma who was among the victims along with the other passengers. Sharma acted as the head referee of the match between Pakistani club Wohaib and Club Valencia from Maldives in the return leg of the 1992–93 Asian Club Championship held at the Railway Stadium in Lahore on 27 September 1992. The next day, on the way home from Pakistan after the match, Sharma died along with the other three assistant referees of the match, Shyam Shrestha, Roshan Kumar Shrestha and Hira Ratna Bajracharya. The Wilkins Memorial Trust, a UK charitable organisation that provides aid to Nepal, was established in memory of a family killed in the accident. == In popular culture ==

The accident is featured in the first episode of Season 20 of Mayday, also known as Air Crash Investigation. The episode is titled "Kathmandu Descent". ==See also==