EVER since 1989, it has been claimed in print, online and in videos that a miscommunication between air traffic control in Subang and the crew of a Boeing 747 led to a fatal crash in what is now Puchong, Selangor.
Is it true that this crash - which happened exactly 34 years and one day ago as of Monday (Feb 20) - was due to a misunderstanding of the language used?
Verdict:
TRUE
The crash of a Boeing 747 freighter being operated as Flying Tigers Line Flight 66 on Feb 19, 1989 was in fact due in large part to a misunderstanding between air traffic control at the then Subang International Airport and its flight crew at the end of its Singapore-Kuala Lumpur run.
At the time of the crash, Flight 66 was cleared to descend to the Kayell radio navigation beacon as part of its preparations to land at Subang's Runway 33 and in leading up to this, air traffic control had told the crew to descend to 2,400 feet (731.5m).
However, this led to a misunderstanding as air traffic control personnel had told the crew of Flight 66 to descend to 2,400 feet by saying “descend two-four-zero-zero” which was misheard in the cockpit as an instruction to “descend to four-zero-zero”.
The correct phrasing here would have been to tell the crew to “descend and maintain two thousand four hundred feet.”
This tragically led to the freighter hitting a hill approximately 180m short of the Kayell beacon - which is where Bandar Puteri Puchong is today - as they came under the minimum descent height of 2,400 feet, and all four on board were killed.
Sources:
1. https://aviation-safety.net/database/record.php?id=19890219-0
2. https://www.flightsafetyaustralia.com/2017/02/fatal-misunderstanding-brought-down-flying-tiger/
