On the wrong flight path, flown by crew unfamiliar with the route and with a possibly faulty weather radar system, Sterling Airways Flight 296 from Sri Lanka to Denmark had the odds stacked against it.
Making what was thought to be a routine descent into Dubai Airport to refuel, the pilot and co-pilot were instead flying over a mountainous area near Al Hayl, a fishing village in Fujairah - more than 100 km away.
Losing contact with Dubai aviation officials at 10.04pm on March 14, 1972 - 40 years ago today - the two-year-old aircraft would crash into a 485-metre ridge.
The plane split in half on impact, killing all 112 passengers and crew, most of whom were Danish. It is one of the worst aviation disasters in the histories of the UAE and Denmark.
To mark the 40th anniversary of those who died, Henrik Michelsen, who has lived in Dubai for around three years, and Jussi Paivinen, whose cousin and parents were passengers, will today hold a memorial service close to the crash site.
The men will look for a memorial plate erected by two Danish sisters in commemoration of the 30th anniversary.
Both young boys at the time of the crash, this is the first time Mr Michelsen or Mr Paivinen - who will make the long trip with his teenage sons - have made the journey.
Mr Paivinen, now 46, was too young to remember the last time he saw his parents, Kim and Raima Paivinen Hellerup, who had treated themselves to a holiday in Sri Lanka after deciding to start up a hotel.
He said visiting Al Hayl was the culmination of many years of personal unrest.
"This will be a good chance to bring it up and go and show my sons where their grandfather and grandmother were lost," Mr Paivinen said.
The memorial will also bring him some closure.
"I have been hiding it from myself and it has been like a black spot in the back of my mind for all these years, and so I thought, 'OK, this must be the time to bring it up and maybe just say goodbye and let it go'," Mr Paivinen said.
He and his younger brother and older sister were brought up by their great uncle.
The Danish Transport Authority's accident report showed the weather, although rough, played no part in the tragedy.
"The combination of Ole Jorgensen and Jorgen Petersen [the pilot and first officer] as crew members … could have been more suitably chosen to perform the flight in question," said the report, produced by the former directorate of civil aviation.
Although qualified pilots, neither had flown the route and neither had received adequate training on how to use the onboard weather radar.
An old flight plan, which would account for the pilots descending in the wrong area, and misreading the radar were listed as probable causes by the Flight Safety Foundation's aviation safety network.
"It was an accident that should never have happened," said Mr Michelsen, who was only eight at the time his air hostess cousin Lone Bernth, 22, died.
Having followed her into the same industry, he remembers the last time he saw his cousin, at a family gathering.
"There she was, my hero, because she was flying," said Mr Michelsen, now 49.
Ms Bernth, whose parents died soon after losing their only child, would have turned 23 the day after the crash.
Having spent much time researching the incident, Mr Michelsen, who organised the 40th anniversary memorial, hopes to write a book for those still asking questions.
"Why did it happen? What were the consequences for those left behind?" he asked. "This accident has been so much swept under the carpet … and I don't get it. I don't understand it. What I'm hoping for [with the book] is that we have 112 souls whose story needs to be told."
Ali Rashid Al Kindi was only five on the day after the crash, when British troops in the area and the UAE government representative for Fujairah came to speak to his father and other villagers.
"We didn't know about the crash but everyone helped to find the plane," Mr Al Kindi said. "The wreckage was massive."
Helicopters provided by Abu Dhabi Defence Force spent two weeks collecting the bodies, all of which were repatriated for burial.
Mr Michelsen praised the efforts made by the UAE, then only a few months old, in helping Denmark cope with its loss.
"It was a new nation, it had just started," he said. "They didn't even have a transport system in place and from my point of view, what they did, it was fantastic."
zalhassani@thenational.ae
The White Lotus: Season three
Creator: Mike White
Starring: Walton Goggins, Jason Isaacs, Natasha Rothwell
Rating: 4.5/5
ABU DHABI ORDER OF PLAY
Starting at 10am:
Daria Kasatkina v Qiang Wang
Veronika Kudermetova v Annet Kontaveit (10)
Maria Sakkari (9) v Anastasia Potapova
Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova v Ons Jabeur (15)
Donna Vekic (16) v Bernarda Pera
Ekaterina Alexandrova v Zarina Diyas
Why%20all%20the%20lefties%3F
%3Cp%3ESix%20of%20the%20eight%20fast%20bowlers%20used%20in%20the%20ILT20%20match%20between%20Desert%20Vipers%20and%20MI%20Emirates%20were%20left-handed.%20So%2075%20per%20cent%20of%20those%20involved.%0D%3Cbr%3EAnd%20that%20despite%20the%20fact%2010-12%20per%20cent%20of%20the%20world%E2%80%99s%20population%20is%20said%20to%20be%20left-handed.%0D%3Cbr%3EIt%20is%20an%20extension%20of%20a%20trend%20which%20has%20seen%20left-arm%20pacers%20become%20highly%20valued%20%E2%80%93%20and%20over-represented%2C%20relative%20to%20other%20formats%20%E2%80%93%20in%20T20%20cricket.%0D%3Cbr%3EIt%20is%20all%20to%20do%20with%20the%20fact%20most%20batters%20are%20naturally%20attuned%20to%20the%20angles%20created%20by%20right-arm%20bowlers%2C%20given%20that%20is%20generally%20what%20they%20grow%20up%20facing%20more%20of.%0D%3Cbr%3EIn%20their%20book%2C%20%3Cem%3EHitting%20Against%20the%20Spin%3C%2Fem%3E%2C%20cricket%20data%20analysts%20Nathan%20Leamon%20and%20Ben%20Jones%20suggest%20the%20advantage%20for%20a%20left-arm%20pace%20bowler%20in%20T20%20is%20amplified%20because%20of%20the%20obligation%20on%20the%20batter%20to%20attack.%0D%3Cbr%3E%E2%80%9CThe%20more%20attacking%20the%20batsman%2C%20the%20more%20reliant%20they%20are%20on%20anticipation%2C%E2%80%9D%20they%20write.%0D%3Cbr%3E%E2%80%9CThis%20effectively%20increases%20the%20time%20pressure%20on%20the%20batsman%2C%20so%20increases%20the%20reliance%20on%20anticipation%2C%20and%20therefore%20increases%20the%20left-arm%20bowler%E2%80%99s%20advantage.%E2%80%9D%0D%3Cbr%3E%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
if you go
The flights
Flydubai offers three daily direct flights to Sarajevo and, from June, a daily flight from Thessaloniki from Dubai. A return flight costs from Dhs1,905 including taxes.
The trip
The Travel Scientists are the organisers of the Balkan Ride and several other rallies around the world. The 2018 running of this particular adventure will take place from August 3-11, once again starting in Sarajevo and ending a week later in Thessaloniki. If you’re driving your own vehicle, then entry start from €880 (Dhs 3,900) per person including all accommodation along the route. Contact the Travel Scientists if you wish to hire one of their vehicles.
NO OTHER LAND
Director: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham, Rachel Szor, Hamdan Ballal
Stars: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham
Rating: 3.5/5
Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
Our legal consultant
Name: Dr Hassan Mohsen Elhais
Position: legal consultant with Al Rowaad Advocates and Legal Consultants.
Dolittle
Director: Stephen Gaghan
Stars: Robert Downey Jr, Michael Sheen
One-and-a-half out of five stars
