1987 Yunkars mid-air collision

On 24 July 1987, Arolan Airways Flight 289, a McDonnell Douglas DC-10-30 en route to, United Kingdom, and Arolan Airways Shuttle Flight 63, a Boeing 737-200 en route to Uilo, Arola, collided over a forest in the Pudas province of Arola, around 11 mi (18 km; 10 nmi) from the village of Yunkars. Both aircraft crashed into terrain and none of the 148 occupants onboard survived. It is the deadliest aviation accident in Arolan airspace.

Arolan Airways Flight 289
The Arolan Airways (now Air Arola) McDonnell Douglas DC-10-30 aircraft, registration OR-WCJ with a capacity of up to 268 passengers, was delivered on 3 April 1978 to Arolan Airways, 9 years before the accident.

Flight 289 had 83 occupants during the flight, less than half of the plane had been occupied during the disaster. The crew consisted of captain Leonard Manninen, 47, and first officer Sauli Adams, 35, as well as 3 flight attendants.

Arolan Airways Shuttle Flight 63
The Arolan Airways Shuttle Boeing 737-200 aircraft, registration OR-TID, was in the Union Shuttle livery at the time of the accident. The aircraft first flew on 28 May 1970 and was delivered to Union Shuttle on 11 June 1970, their third 737 aircraft.

The crew of Flight 63 consisted of captain Jim Matheson, 51, an Arolan citizen with Canadian ancestry, first officer Lilli Virolainen, 39, and 2 flight attendants. Matheson had previously flown for before moving back to Arola to fly for Union Shuttle shortly before Air Arola's acquisition.

Accident
At 15:21 local time on 24th July 1987, Arolan Airways Flight 289 departed Kelvia via runway 33L/15R, while Flight 63 departed Kelvia via runway 33R/15L at 15:24. Both takeoffs occurred without incident.

As both flights progressed, fog conditions worsened. Both aircraft had been alerted about flying nearby each other. At 15:31, the ATC noticed both aircraft being too near to each other and notified Flight 289 to climb to a higher altitude, however both the captain and first officer did not notice how close the aircraft was from Flight 63.

Just exactly at 15:33, the left wing of Flight 289 collided onto the tail of Flight 63, over a thick forest in Pudas province. Triggered by the impact of the collision, the captain questioned about what had happened. Flight 63 began to dive down approximately nine seconds later and plummeted onto terrain at 15:33:18 local time.

Meanwhile, the left wing of Flight 289 was detached from the aircraft at 15:33:11 and the aircraft eventually stalled. Flight 289 went down thereafter and impacted onto a row of trees at 15:33:24, setting the patch of forest ablaze with a mushroom cloud. Several eyewitnesses driving on Freeway 9 experienced a strong gush of wind after the crash, one allegedly commented that his back window shattered into pieces.

It was only at 16:17 local time when the Yunkars Fire Department was dispatched to the forest fire and immediately sent out a Bell 205 helicopter to extinguish the fires. Investigators and rescue crew were sent out to the scene as well. All of the 148 occupants died in the crash.

Investigation and final report
The investigation of the crash was backed by the Arolan government, who sent out government officials to supervise the search. The flight data recorders and cockpit voice recorders were only recovered within a couple of days from the incident due to several difficulties in pinpointing the exact location of the crash.

The Arolan government announced in a press release that it officially ruled out the cause of the collision, which was held to be a pilot error, due to the captain's inability to notice the oncoming Union 63. It was also found that the ATC had miscommunicated with Arola 289, causing the DC-10 to climb nearer to the Arolan Airways Shuttle aircraft rather than swerving away.

Aftermath
Both flight numbers 289 and 63 were retired in favor of 287 and 62 respectively, in respect for the victims of the collision. The flight number 287 was previously involved in an Arolan Airways tailstrike incident in 1973.