Incident Overview
A four-engine aircraft was conducting a cargo flight from Al Mukalla to Sharjah, carrying eight crew members and a load of 7 tons of fish. During the takeoff roll on runway 06, at a speed of 225 km/h, the nose gear collapsed. The captain initiated an emergency braking procedure. To avoid a collision with a radio-technical equipment car, he steered the aircraft to the left. The aircraft veered off the runway, rolled for approximately 400 metres, and came to rest in a sandy area about 30 metres to the left of the extended centerline. All eight occupants escaped uninjured, while the aircraft was damaged beyond repair.
Probable Cause
The official investigation identified the probable cause as the flight engineer retracting the landing gear prematurely during the takeoff procedure without any instruction from the captain. The flight engineer violated standard operating procedures by moving the landing gear switch to the 'retract position' and then to 'neutral' without reporting to the captain, which led to the occurrence and its development.