The planes collided near Dadri, a town east of the Indian capital, with a population of 50,000. The Saudi plane had been in the air for only seven minutes when it was asked by air controllers to rise to 15,000 feet. At the same time the approaching Kazakh plane was asked to descend to 14,000 feet when the accident occurred at 6:40pm on Tuesday, 12th November.
A U.S. Air Force pilot commandeering a C-141 cargo plane on approach to the New Delhi airport witnessed the accident from just below 20,000 feet, about fifty miles northwest of the Indira Ghandi International Airport described the exploding planes as "two fireballs that descended and became fireballs on the ground". Another eye-witness, an Indian building contractor said, "I saw fireballs and big black smoke about three or four kilometers from my house falling into the fields,"
According to a senior aviation official, there is evidence that one of the two planes swerved just before the collision. "From all accounts it was not a head-on collision. There are indications of banking by one of the planes, possibly to get out of the other's way," the official said.
"We will not spare any culprit" if any individual was to blame, Prime Minister H.D. Deve Gowda said. India launched an official investigation and the Ministry of Civil Aviation has named a team of four to conduct the investigation and submit a report by February 15. "Until the report is available, it cannot be said whether it was failure of pilots or the air traffic control," he told reporters. On Wednesday investigators pulled the last of four black boxes from the scattered wreckage of the two planes. "They look damaged, but we expect the insides to be safe and secure," said Indian Director of Air Safety V.K. Chandna.
The US Embassy in India said that two women aboard the Saudi plane were U.S. citizens, and British officials reported that there was one British woman aboard the flight. Appart from about thirteen Saudi's on the plane the rest of the more than 300 people aboard were Indians traveling to Saudi Arabia for jobs or to visit Islamic Holy sites.
An official from KazAir said that passengers onboard the chartered jet included several Kazakh businessmen traveling from Kazakhstan to India.