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Aviation Accident | |
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Date | 20 October 1986 |
Summary | Runway overrun due to pilot recklessness |
Site | Kuibyshev Airport, Soviet Union |
Aircraft | |
Aircraft type | Tupolev Tu-134A |
Operator | Aeroflot |
Registration | CCCP-65766 |
Flight origin | Koltsovo Airport, Soviet Union |
Stopover | Kuibyshev Airport, Soviet Union |
Destination | Grozny Airport, Soviet Union |
Occupants | 94 |
Passengers | 87 |
Crew | 7 |
Fatalities | 70 |
Survivors | 24 |
Aeroflot Flight 6502 was a Soviet domestic passenger flight operated by a Tupolev Tu-134A from Sverdlovsk (now Yekaterinburg) to Grozny, which crashed on 20 October 1986; 70 of the 94 passengers and crew on board were killed. The accident occurred when, on a bet, the pilot attempted to make an instrument-only approach with curtained cockpit windows. Investigators determined the cause of the accident was pilot negligence.[1]
Background
The crew of the Tu-134A aircraft, serial number 62327 manufactured on 28 June 1979, consisted of pilot in command Alexander Kliuyev, co-pilot Gennady Zhirnov, navigating officer Ivan Mokhonko, flight engineer Kyuri Khamzatov, and three flight attendants.[2] Having departed from Koltsovo Airport in Yekaterinburg (then Sverdlovsk) and bound for Grozny, Flight 6502 had one stopover at Kurumoch Airport in Samara (then Kuibyshev).[1]
![](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/a8/Wreckage_of_aeroflot_flight_6502_crash.jpg/220px-Wreckage_of_aeroflot_flight_6502_crash.jpg)
Crash
While approaching Kurumoch Airport, Captain Kliuyev made a bet with First Officer Zhirnov that he, Kliuyev, could make an instrument-only approach with curtained cockpit windows, thus having no visual contact with the ground, instead of an NDB approach, suggested by the air traffic control.[2] Kliuyev further ignored the ground-proximity warning at an altitude of 62–65 metres (203–213 ft) and did not make the suggested go-around.[2] The aircraft touched down on the runway at a speed of 150 knots (280 km/h; 170 mph) and came to rest upside down after overrunning the runway.[2] Sixty-three people died during the accident and seven more in hospitals later.[2] Among the passengers were 14 children, all of whom survived the accident.[3] The top-secret report of the chairman of Kuibyshev oblispolkom V. A. Pogodin to Premier Nikolai Ryzhkov gave slightly different figures: Of 85 passengers and eight crew members aboard, 53 passengers and five crew members died in the crash and 11 more in hospitals later.[3]
Though Zhirnov made no attempt to avert the crash, he subsequently tried to save the passengers and died of cardiac arrest while on the way to the hospital.[4] Kliuyev was prosecuted and sentenced to 15 years in prison, later reduced to six years served.[5][4]
See also
- National Airlines Flight 27, where in-flight experimentation possibly caused an uncontained engine failure
- Northwest Airlines Flight 188, where the pilots stopped monitoring the flight
- Pinnacle Airlines Flight 3701, a crash where the pilots chose, for fun, to exceed aircraft limits
- Aeroflot Flight 593, a crash where the pilots let minors fly the aircraft
- United Airlines Flight 2885, a crash where the pilots let the flight engineer fly the plane
References
- ^ a b Ranter, Harro. "ASN Aircraft accident Tupolev Tu-134A CCCP-65766 Kuybyshev Airport (KUF)". aviation-safety.net. Aviation Safety Network. Archived from the original on 11 January 2021. Retrieved 13 July 2020.
- ^ a b c d e "Катастрофа Ту-134А Северо-Кавказского УГА в а/п Курумоч (Куйбышев)" [Accident of Tu-134A of the North-Caucasian CAA in the airport Kurumoch (Kuibyshev)] (in Russian). Airdisaster.ru. Archived from the original on 4 October 2012. Retrieved 2 December 2013.
- ^ a b "Самая крупная катастрофа случилась в Самарском аэропорту в 1986 году" [The biggest disaster happened at Samara airport in 1986] (in Russian). RIA Samara. Archived from the original on 4 July 2012. Retrieved 2 December 2013.
- ^ a b "Blind Landing on a Dare Killed Dozens, Paper Says: Soviets Disclose October Airliner Crash". Los Angeles Times. Reuters. 5 June 1987. Archived from the original on 24 October 2016. Retrieved 4 December 2013.
Soviet Russia said the co-pilot died of heart failure while trying to rescue passengers.
- ^ Moonspell (4 January 2016). "Совершенно секретные фотографии авиакатастрофы в Самаре" [Top secret photos of a plane crash in Samara] (in Russian). Archived from the original on 27 February 2016. Retrieved 8 January 2016.