On 8 March 1994, a Sahara India Airlines Boeing 737 crashed shortly after takeoff during a training exercise at Delhi-Indira Gandhi International Airport, India. The plane slammed into an Aeroflot Ilyushin Il-86, which led to both aircraft being destroyed. All 6 crew members on both planes were killed, along with two other Aeroflot employees on the Ilyushin and one person on the ground. There were no passengers on either aircraft during the crash. The cause of the crash was determined to be pilot error.
The accident aircraft, a Boeing 737-200, registration number VT-SIA, was manufactured for Busy Bee in 1979 and had made its first flight on April 25, 1979. It was sold to Sahara India Airlines in October 1993 and was almost 15 years old at the time of the accident. It was equipped with 2 Pratt & Whitney JT8D-17 engines.
The flight crew consisted of a flight instructor and three trainee pilots.
At about 2:54 pm on Tuesday, March 8, 1994, the Boeing 737-200 took off from Delhi-Indira Gandhi International Airport, India, on the sixth of a planned series of touch-and-go landings. After climbing to , it banked left and crashed at the International Terminal apron. The wreckage collided with an Aeroflot Ilyushin Il-86 aircraft, registration number RA-86119, Flight 558, which was parked on Bay No. 45 after making an unscheduled layover and undergoing repairs. The Ilyushin was fully loaded with fuel and also caught fire as a result of the impact. Both aircraft were destroyed and all 4 crew members on board the Boeing were killed, as well as all 4 Aeroflot employees on board the Ilyushin: 2 crew members, a ground engineer, and an airport worker. Additionally, an employee of Bharat Petroleum, the airport fuel supplier, was killed on the tarmac. At least two air bridges and other ground facilities were damaged.
An investigation by the India Commercial Pilot Association (ICPA) revealed that the accident occurred due to application of the incorrect rudder by a trainee pilot during the exercise. The flight instructor, who was making his first flight as an instructor, did not guard or block the rudder control and did not give clear commands to avoid the application of the wrong rudder control by the trainee pilot.