direction, was cleared to climb to . About eight minutes later, around 18:40, the KZA flight reported having reached its assigned altitude of , but it was actually lower, at , and still descending. At this time, Dutta advised the flight, "Identified traffic 12 o'clock, reciprocal Saudia Boeing 747, . Report in sight." When the controller called Flight 1907 again, he received no reply. He tried to warn of the other flight's distance, but was too late. The two aircraft collided, with the tail of the KZA flight slicing through the left wing of the SVA 747 and horizontal stabiliser. The crippled Saudi Boeing quickly lost control and went into a rapidly descending spiral with fire trailing from the wing, and the aircraft broke up in mid air before crashing into the ground at a nearly supersonic speed of . The Ilyushin remained structurally intact as it entered a steady but rapid and uncontrolled descent, until it crashed in a field. Rescuers discovered four critically injured passengers from the Ilyushin, but they all died soon afterwards. Two passengers from the Saudia flight survived the crash, still strapped to their seats, only to die of internal injuries soon after. In the end, all 312 people on board SVA763 and all 37 people on KZA1907 were killed. The collision took place about west of Delhi. The wreckage of the Saudi Arabian aircraft landed near Dhani village, Bhiwani District, Haryana. The wreckage of the Kazakh aircraft hit the ground near Birohar village, Rohtak District, Haryana. Investigation and final report The crash was investigated by the Lahoti Commission, headed by then-Delhi High Court judge Ramesh Chandra Lahoti. Depositions were taken from the Air Traffic Controllers Guild and the two airlines. The flight data recorders were decoded by Kazakhstan Airlines and Saudia under the supervision of air crash investigators in Moscow and Farnborough, England, respectively. The ultimate cause was held to be the failure of Kazakhstan Airlines Flight 1907's pilot to follow ATC instructions, whether due to cloud turbulence or due to communication problems. The commission determined that the accident had been the fault of the Kazakhstani Il-76 commander, who (according to FDR evidence) had descended from the assigned altitude of and subsequently and even lower. The report ascribed the cause of this serious breach in operating procedure to the lack of English language skills on the part of the Kazakhstani aircraft pilots; they were