On 19 July 1962 at 13:30 UTC, the plane departed from Hong Kong for the first leg of the flight with 18 passengers and 8 crew aboard.

The investigation found a sequence of mistakes in the navigation by the pilot-in-command as a probable cause, which "resulted in grave errors of time and distance in his computations".

The aircraft was a de Havilland DH-106 Comet 4C with construction number 6464, delivered to United Arab Airlines in 1962.

[2] Flight 869 took off from Hong Kong Kai Tak Airport for the first leg of its journey to Cairo.

Upon initial contact, the flight advised ATC that they had passed the Ubol NDB at 15:13 UTC, and requested to fly direct to the Bangkok VOR.

Upon initial contact with Bangkok control at 15:30, the crew requested descent, reporting their position to be 90 miles (78 nmi; 140 km) out from the VOR.