Date:	Thursday 25 December 1986
Time:
Type:	Boeing 737-270C
Owner/operator:	Iraqi Airways
Registration:	YI-AGJ
MSN:	21183/446
Year of manufacture:	1976
Engine model:	Pratt & Whitney JT8D-15
Fatalities:	Fatalities: 63 / Occupants: 106
Aircraft damage:	Destroyed, written off
Category:	UI
Location:	near Arar -   Saudi Arabia
Phase:	En route
Nature:	Passenger - Scheduled
Departure airport:	Baghdad-Saddam International Airport (SDA/ORBS)
Destination airport:	Amman-Queen Alia International Airport (AMM/OJAI)

Narrative:
Iraqi Airways Flight 163, a Boeing 737-200 with 91 passengers and 15 crewmembers and security officers, was on a scheduled flight from Baghdad, Iraq, to Amman, Jordan.
About 55 minutes into the flight, while entering Saudi Arabian airspace at FL260 (8000 m), four hijackers tried to enter the cockpit. When Iraqi Airways security personnel tried to intervene, a hand grenade was thrown into the passenger cabin.
An emergency descent was initiated immediately. As the aircraft was descending through FL160, a hand grenade exploded in the cockpit. Approaching Arar, control was lost and the aircraft crash-landed, broke in two and caught fire.

Criminal Acts Against Civil Aviation 1986 / U.S. Department of Transport, FAA, Office of Civil Aviation Security
Aviation Letter 243

photo (c) Hossi; Arar; 25 December 1986

photo (c) Werner Fischdick; Budapest-Ferihegy Airport (BUD); 13 September 1985

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