Wings of Tragedy: The Forgotten Plane Crashes in Agartala Airport
Manas Pal
These are the stories long lost. Even the memories of the deceased have faded into silence. But buried deep in dusty aviation archives lie reports that whisper of pain, loss, and survival—forgotten chapters from Tripura’s skies.
Agartala Airport—once known by the lyrical name Singarbil Airport and now officially Maharaja Bir Bikram (MBB) Airport—has a history far heavier than its runways suggest.
Few today would remember, or even believe, that this small northeastern airport witnessed as many as five plane crashes, two of them fatal.
Even the now-defunct Khowai Airport, not far from Agartala, has its own tragic entry in India’s aviation records.
But the worst air tragedy associated with Tripura occurred far away from its skies—in Khulna (then East Pakistan) on April 21, 1969, when a plane en route to Kolkata crashed, killing 44 passengers, many of them from Tripura.
The War Years: The First Crash
The first recorded crash at Agartala dates back to the Second World War.
On March 25, 1943, a Douglas DC-3 military plane of the Royal Air Force went down shortly after take-off.
Little is known about the flight path or mission—only that there were three crew members, all of whom survived, possibly after parachuting to safety.
Over the next three years, three more crashes were reported across Tripura’s hilly terrain—in 1944, 1945, and 1946, at Jampui Hills and Gandacherra.
All were U.S. Air Force aircraft, remnants of the war effort over Burma.
(Those stories were recounted earlier.) There was on more Pakistani Plane crash at Dhumacherra ( Langatari Hills) on March 14, 1953 in which 16 were killed. That will be a separate story later.
The 1950s: A Decade of Disasters
The 1950s proved to be the darkest period in Agartala’s aviation history, marked by three plane crashes in just a few years.
April 10, 1952 – Kalinga Airlines Disaster
A Douglas C-47 Skytrainer operated by Kalinga Airlines crashed at the airport, killing all four crew members.
The cause was engine failure. The official record reads:
“On final approach to Agartala Airport, an engine failed. The pilot-in-command elected to make an emergency landing when the aircraft stalled and crashed in a field located a few hundred yards short of the runway.”
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|Since documents are not clear here you may see– Bureau of Aircraft Accidents Archives
For ALL DOCUMENTS OF ALL THE PLANE CRASHES —https://www.baaa-acro.com/zone/tripura
November 12, 1952 – Bharat Airways Crash
Only months later, a Bharat Airways cargo plane went down about 10 km from Agartala Airport.
All three crew members sustained serious injuries, but miraculously, no deaths were reported.
The report said: “The aircraft bounced on landing. The pilot-in-command decided to go around and increased power when the left wing stalled and hit the ground.”
October 19, 1956 – Indian Airlines Cargo Crash
Four years later, tragedy struck again. A Douglas DC-3 cargo plane of Indian Airlines crashed near the airport in bad weather.
All three crew members were killed.
According to the investigation: “Despite the fact that weather conditions were below minima, the crew started a third attempt to land. On final, as the pilot-in-command was unable to locate the runway, he decided to make a new go-around when the aircraft struck trees and crashed in flames.”
1970: A Miracle Amidst Wreckage
The next major crash came on June 7, 1970, when a Fokker Friendship F27 of Indian Airlines carrying 35 passengers and four crew from Kolkata crash-landed at Agartala Airport around 6:30 a.m.
By sheer luck, all 39 occupants survived, though many were injured.
The aircraft, however, was damaged beyond repair.
The inquiry blamed pilot misjudgement: “Following a wrong approach configuration, the aircraft landed at a too high speed and too far down the runway… overran, lost its undercarriage and came to rest.”
Khowai’s Forgotten Crash
In the same year, another mishap occurred near Khowai Airport.
On March 29, 1970, a Douglas 47-20-DK of Airways India Limited carrying four crew and four passengers crashed roughly 10 km from Khowai.
All eight people survived, though the aircraft was destroyed.
The cause, again, was a wrong approach configuration on a wet runway.
Echoes in the Sky
Each of these tragedies—some fatal, others miraculously survivable—formed fragments of Tripura’s untold aviation history.
The jungles have long reclaimed the wreckage, and the names of the dead have faded from memory.
But somewhere in the yellowed pages of aviation reports, the stories remain—silent witnesses to a time when the skies over Tripura were not as tranquil as they seem today.
The chronicles of Tripura’s air disasters are more than mere statistics—they are echoes from a turbulent past when aviation was still a daredevil enterprise. These stories, resurrected from archival dust, remind us how far we have come—and what the skies once cost us. (Also Published in Tripura Times)
|Also Read : The Burning Skies of Tripura : Air Crash Series |
