On 19 August 1980, Saudia Flight 163 left Riyadh International Airport for Jeddah aboard a Lockheed L-1011 TriStar carrying 287 passengers and 14 crew. What followed became one of aviation’s most haunting disasters: the aircraft successfully returned to the airport after an in-flight fire, landed safely and stopped on a taxiway—yet nobody survived.
Flight 163 had begun its journey in Karachi, Pakistan, and reached Riyadh for a scheduled stop. After refuelling and taking on passengers for the onward flight to Jeddah, the L-1011 departed at about 9:08 p.m. local time.
Roughly seven minutes after takeoff, the crew received warnings indicating smoke in the aft C-3 cargo compartment. A second warning followed shortly afterward. Flight engineer Bradley Curtis went into the passenger cabin to investigate and reported seeing smoke and fire coming from the rear of the aircraft.
The situation was rapidly becoming critical. The fire had begun burning through the floor separating the cargo compartment from the passenger cabin. Flight attendants attempted to fight the fire using portable extinguishers, but the flames continued to spread.
Captain Mohammed Ali Khowyter decided to turn back to Riyadh. The crew informed air traffic control that they needed to return because of the fire. As the aircraft approached the airport, the fire had already damaged systems aboard the aircraft. At one point, the fire burned through the control cable associated with the No. 2 engine, causing its thrust lever to become jammed. The engine was eventually shut down during the approach.
At approximately 9:35 p.m., Flight 163 landed back at Riyadh.
This should have been the moment when the passengers escaped.
Instead, the tragedy entered its most inexplicable phase.
Rather than making an immediate emergency stop and evacuating on the runway, the L-1011 continued its landing roll, exited the runway and taxied onto a taxiway. The aircraft finally stopped approximately two minutes and 40 seconds after touchdown, having used almost the entire 13,000-foot runway…. [continued in comments]….
