The aircraft impacted a hillside 437 ft (133 m) above sea level and 12 km (7.5 mi; 6.5 nmi) from Kuala Lumpur, resulting in all four occupants being killed.

[4][5] The crew consisted of Captain Francis "Frank" Halpin (59), First Officer John "Jack" Robinson (54), and Flight Engineer Ronald Penton (70).

[9] In descent, the flight was cleared to "Kayell" with a Morse code of "KL" of which four separate points on the ground were commonly called by Malaysian ATC, albeit with different frequencies.

Air traffic control (ATC) radioed to the flight, "Tiger 66, descend two four zero zero (about 2,400 ft (730 m)), cleared for NDB approach runway 33."

The CVR[10] also revealed several communication errors made by the flight crew prior to this miscommunication and a general casual nature of the captain, who was the pilot-not-flying on this particular leg of the trip.

Additionally, the FO, who was the pilot flying at the time, expressed concern about conducting the NDB approach and indicated a preference for the ILS for runway 15.