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Crash of Pakistan Airways on 12 December 1949 near Jungshahi, 42 miles from Karachi.

Aircraft was a Douglas DC-3 (AP-ADI); there were 26 fatalities

The DC-3 was flying from Lahore. It would take around 4 hours. It departed in daylight from Lahore. The crash occurred at 9.47 PM Pakistan Time, at night.

Nawabshah, which is 120 miles from Karachi, would be last position establishing point on the ground.

The mountains are around 5000-to 6000 feet msl after crossing the River Indus enroute to Karachi from Nawabshah so the safety altitude would be around 7500 feet. The flight is on an Instrument Flight Rules (IFR) flight plan. The plan can only be cancelled legally by the ATC.

Between Nawabshah and Karachi in those days there were no navigational aids, or even now. The VHF VOR navigation receiver picks up Karachi VOR signals depending on how high the aircraft is. For a modern-day commercial jet aircraft, you may be able to pick up Karachi VOR signals overhead Nawabshah at 33000 feet.

This aid is VHF or line of sight. But the DC-3 would have only Radio Pakistan Karachi to home on. Radio Pakistan signals were not VHF at the time and subject to the moods of the weather, a thunderstorm with its static would render the instrument seeking signals from it useless.

Dead Reckoning means accurate navigation with time recorded over waypoints and distance off track known so that it can be corrected for the wind drift. This was the mode of navigation available and the error must have been here, most probably in the time recorded. The pilot started the descent early with terrain all round.