Air India Flight 855 Boeing 747 crashes into the sea, due to instrument failure and pilot disorientation, off the coast of Bombay, India, killing 213.
Air India Flight 855 was a scheduled passenger flight from Santa Cruz Airport, Bombay to Dubai International Airport, Dubai. On New Years Day in 1978, the Boeing 747 operating the flight crashed about 3 km (1.9 mi; 1.6 nmi) off the coast of Bandra, Bombay (now Mumbai). All 213 passengers and crew on board were killed. An investigation into the crash determined the most likely probable cause was the captain becoming spatially disoriented after the failure of one of the flight instruments in the cockpit. It was Air India's deadliest aircraft crash until the bombing of Flight 182 in 1985. It was also the deadliest aviation accident in India until the Charkhi Dadri mid-air collision in 1996. As of 2022, Flight 855 is still the second deadliest aircraft crash in both of these categories.