On February 10, 2004, the aircraft serving the route, a Fokker 50, lost control and crashed onto terrain while on approach to Sharjah International Airport.

A total of 43 out of 46 people on board were killed in the crash, making it the deadliest air disaster involving the Fokker 50.

[1] The Emirati General Civil Aviation Authority concluded that the accident was mainly caused by pilot error.

Realizing this, the captain took over the control and decided to pull the thrust until it reached the ground range to quickly decrease their altitude.

The crash of Flight 9642 had resulted in the mandatory recommendation for every Fokker F50 operators to send their aircraft back to the manufacturer for modification.

The striking resemblances between both disasters caused authorities to urge non-compliant operators to immediately transport their Fokker F50 for the updated design.

First Officer Panahian was surprised by this decision as this was not what the pilots had planned earlier, eventually declining the captain's order stating that he was not confident enough on his ability to conduct the approach to the airport.

Captain Hosseini, however, refused to accept his answer and insisted Panahian be the pilot flying, stating that he would provide assistance during the approach.

With a remaining distance of less than 3 nautical miles (3.5 mi; 5.6 km) between the aircraft and the airport, Captain Hosseini tried to take over the control from First Officer Panahian.

Immediately afterwards, the propeller speed jumped and caused a noisy sound loud enough to startle both pilots.

The aircraft continued to plunge in a heavy left bank angle until it struck the ground, narrowly missing a residential area, crossed a road and exploded on impact, bursting into flames.

Rescue services eventually arrived at the scene approximately 25 minutes after the accident, but by then it was already too late as the aircraft had been completely destroyed by the fire.

The flight was frequented by migrant workers from UAE who were intending to renew their visas in the Iranian resort island of Kish as Kish Island was designated by Iranian authorities as a free trade zone and no visa was required prior to arrival.

[2][11] The investigation was conducted by Emirates General Civil Aviation Authority, as well as several investigation team from the outside, including the Iran Civil Aviation Organization (CAO), representing as the State of Operator and the Dutch Transport Safety Board, representing as the manufacturer of the aircraft.

They were presented to the Bureau of Enquiry and Analysis for Civil Aviation Safety (BEA) in Le Bourget, France on 16 February 2004 for extraction of the DFDR data and CVR transcription.

[2]: 17 The approach was initially planned to be conducted by Captain Hosseini as the pilot flying, but it ended up being switched during the enroute phase.

The sudden role switch caught First Officer Panahian off guard as it had not been agreed by both pilots prior to the flight.

First Officer Panahian had refused on conducting the approach as he was not confident on his ability to land, but Captain Hosseini pushed him and insisted him to do it.

As the engine started to produce reverse thrust, massive drag forces began to appear, crippling the aircraft's ability to fly.

[2]: 50 As the crew realized that the reverser had been deployed in the air, the thrust levers were quickly moved forward.

Instead of increasing the airspeed, the engines put the propellers into maximum reverse, producing large amount of drag.

The secondary stop was an electrical flight idle solenoid that was equipped on each propeller of the aircraft and was powered by the skid-control unit.

[2]: 27–29 While the purpose of the secondary stop was to prevent the thrust from entering the ground range, the feature could be overridden by a glitch within the aircraft's components.

[2]: 27–29 The safety feature could be overridden by an electromagnetic interference from the aircraft's skid-control unit, which in turn powered the solenoids.

[2]: 36–38 The investigation revealed that the anti-skid control unit of the aircraft involved in the crash was still in the original unmodified condition.

Among those were calls for Dutch Civil Aviation Authority to strongly urge non-compliant operators to modify the anti-skid control unit of the Fokker F50, recommendation for Iranian CAO to stress the importance of proper training and prohibition regarding the use of ground control range during flight, and new calls for ICAO to implement cockpit video camera policy.

On February 11, UAE President Shaikh Zayed Bin Sultan Al Nahayan announced a nationwide change on the visa-law.

[12][13] In 2010, the Federal Supreme Court of the UAE ordered Kish Air to pay Dh864,000 to the families of the victims.