The Cairo Crash: From Inaugural Pride to National Tragedy
On May 20, 1965, a PIA Boeing 720 operating its Karachi–London service via Dhahran and Cairo crashed approximately 20 kilometers short of Cairo Airport. The aircraft was on what has been described as its inaugural sector to London when the disaster occurred. Reports indicate that 122 lives were lost, including Momi Gul Durrani and 21 journalists traveling onboard. Earlier archival records sometimes cite 114 fatalities; discrepancies in historical reporting often arise from classification differences between crew and passenger counts. Regardless of numerical variation, the outcome was total loss.
The crash marked one of the darkest chapters in PIA’s early jet history. The same Boeing 720 series that symbolized national ambition became associated with collective mourning.
