Aeroflot Flight 6502
 | |
| Accident | |
|---|---|
| Date | 20 October 1986 |
| Summary | Pilot error |
| Aircraft | |
| Aircraft type | Tu-134A |
| Operator | Aeroflot |
| Registration | CCCP-65766 |
| Flight origin | Ekaterinburg-Koltsovo Airport (SVX/USSS), Yekaterinburg |
| Stopover | Kurumoch International Airport (KUF/UWWW), Samara, Russia, (formerly Kuibyshev Airport (KUF/UWWW)) |
| Destination | Grozny |
| Passengers | 87 |
| Crew | 7 |
| Fatalities | 70 |
| Survivors | 24 |
Aeroflot Flight 6502 was a Soviet domestic passenger flight from Sverdlovsk (now Yekaterinburg) to Grozny, which crashed on 20 October 1986 due to pilot error, killing seventy of the ninety-four passengers and crew on board.
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.[1] Having departed from Koltsovo Airport in Yekaterinburg (then Sverdlovsk) and bound for Grozny, Flight 6502 had one stopover in Kurumoch Airport of Samara (then Kuibyshev).
Accident
While approaching Kurumoch Airport, Kliuyev made a bet with Zhirnov to make an instrument-only approach with curtained cockpit windows, thus having no visual contact with the ground, instead of NDB approach, suggested by the air traffic control.[1] 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.[1] The aircraft touched down at a speed of 280 kilometres per hour (170 mph)[1] and came to rest upside down. Sixty-three people died during the accident and 7 more in hospitals later.[1] Among the passengers were fourteen children, all of whom survived the accident.[2] The top secret report of the Chairman of Kuibyshev oblispolkom V.A. Pogodin to the Premier of the Soviet Union Nikolai Ryzhkov gave slightly different figures: 85 passengers and 8 crew members aboard, 53 passengers and 5 crew members died in the crash and 11 more in hospital later.[2]
Even though Zhirnov made no attempt to avert the crash, he subsequently tried to save the passengers and died of cardiac arrest en route to hospital.[3] The pilot of Flight 6502 was prosecuted and sentenced to fifteen years in prison, but than was reviewed to 6 years, that pilot spent fully.[4][3]
References
- ^ a b c d e Катастрофа Ту-134А Северо-Кавказского УГА в а/п Курумоч (Куйбышев) (in Russian). Airdisaster.ru. Retrieved 2 December 2013.
- ^ a b Самая крупная катастрофа случилась в Самарском аэропорту в 1986 году (in Russian). RIA Samara. Retrieved 2 December 2013.
- ^ a b Blind Landing on a Dare Killed Dozens, Paper Says : Soviets Disclose October Airliner Crash
- ^ http://fishki.net/1801234-sovershenno-sekretnye-fotografii-aviakatastrofy-v-samare.html