August 19th, 1980. Saudia Arabia airlines Flight 163 was on a scheduled flight course from Quaid-e-Azam International Airport in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia to Jeddah International Airport in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. Departure procedures were handled as expected, however, the cockpit crew did not show signs of confidence. The plane being flown by the first officer, who was a young inexperienced pilot and also, had a record of once being removed from flying school because of bad progression. The captain; Mohammed Ali Khowyter, had a history of slow learning as well. An American flight engineer was in attendance too. Around 10 minutes after take-off, audio and visual indicators started to point out to the crew that there was presence of fire in the aft cargo compartment. The crew then spent the following four to six minutes trying to confirm the warnings and searching for the correct procedure for smoke alerts in the manual. At this point, Captain Khowyter took matters into his own hands and started heading back to Quaid-e-Azam Airport. With the flight engineer heading to the cabin to confirm the warning, he returned with affirmation that there was a fire in the aircraft. Communication to the ATC commenced to ready the fire trucks on the ground. While on the way back to the airport, the captain received mixed messages from the flight engineer on the seriousness of the fire. This could have led to why the captain seemed relaxed although it was an emergency state. Despite this, the
