Aeroflot Flight 964

Aeroflot Flight 964
	An Aeroflot Tupolev Tu-104B similar to the aircraft involved
Accident
Date	13 October 1973
Summary	Spatial disorientation after electrical failure
Site	16 km north-west of Domodedovo Airport
Aircraft
Aircraft type	Tupolev Tu-104
Operator	Aeroflot
Registration	CCCP-42486
Flight origin	Kutaisi Airport, Georgia
Destination	Domodedovo Airport, Moscow, Russia
Occupants	122
Passengers	114
Crew	8
Fatalities	122
Survivors	0

Aeroflot Flight 964 was a flight operated by Aeroflot from Kutaisi Airport, Georgia to Domodedovo Airport, Moscow, Russian SFSR. On 13 October 1973 the Tupolev Tu-104 operating on the route crashed during its approach to Moscow, killing all 122 passengers and crew on board. It remains the deadliest accident involving a Tupolev Tu-104.[1]

Aircraft

The aircraft involved in the accident was a Tupolev Tu-104B, registered CCCP-42486 to the Georgia division of Aeroflot. Originally the aircraft cabin had 100 seats, but it was later reconfigured for 115 seats. At the time of the accident the aircraft had 16,250 flight hours and sustained 9,776 pressurization cycles.[2]

Crew

Eight crew members were aboard the flight. The cockpit crew consisted of:[2][3]

Captain Georgy Iraklievich Kurtsidze
Co-pilot Karmen Semenovich Ratiani
Navigator Boris Grigorievich Yegoyan
Flight Engineer Devi Alexandrovich Zakariadze
Radio operator Gurami Georgievich Lominadze

Flight attendants R.K. Nubarova and D.I. Rusova worked in the cabin, along with an officer of the Ministry of Internal Affairs monitoring the flight.[2]

Synopsis

The flight departed Kutaisi Airport at 18:10 with 114 passengers aboard. Eight passengers boarded the flight illegally. At 19:52 the Tu-104 was handed over to Moscow air traffic control. At 20:12:55 the controller gave Flight 964 permission to descend to an altitude of 400 meters. 26 seconds later the aircraft was reported to be 11 kilometers from Domodedovo at an altitude of 900 meters. At 20:13:28 the crew reported that they were on a bearing of 317° (opposite to the runway) and at 20:15:55 the pilots informed the controller that they were having issues with their compass, while at an altitude of 900 meters. At 20:16:25 with the landing gear released, at a speed of 380–400 km/h and 19 kilometers from the runway the aircraft began to perform a third right turn for the approach. No more radio transmissions were heard from the flight.[3]

Visibility that night was at 2,400 meters. During approach while on a bearing of 143° the crew lost spatial orientation, entered a spin to the left and crashed in a field 16 km northwest of Domodedovo Airport (19.6 kilometers from the airport reference point), striking several power lines. The field of debris was approximately 248 by 180 meters; All 114 passengers and 8 crew were killed.[1][3][4]

Causes

The investigation concluded that after the first right turn executed by the aircraft (in which the bank exceeded 40°), multiple navigation instruments including the compass and artificial horizon failed. Combined with the poor visibility at the airport, the crew lost spatial orientation and were unable to see any landmarks to determine their position. When the plane banked slightly to the right, the pilots corrected the right bank only to put the plane into a sharp left bank that reached 70°, causing the crash.[3][4]

References

"Accident synopsis, Tupolev Tu-104 CCCP-42486". Aviation-safety.net. Retrieved 30 December 2012.
"Туполев Ту-104Б Бортовой №: СССР-42486". russianplanes.net. Retrieved 15 April 2017.
"Катастрофа Ту-104Б Грузинского УГА в районе а/п Домодедово". www.airdisaster.ru. Retrieved 15 April 2017.
"Soviet Transport - Scramble". www.scramble.nl. Retrieved 15 April 2017.

This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.

[asn-1] "Accident synopsis, Tupolev Tu-104 CCCP-42486". Aviation-safety.net. Retrieved 30 December 2012.

[:1-2] "Туполев Ту-104Б Бортовой №: СССР-42486". russianplanes.net. Retrieved 15 April 2017.

[:2-3] "Катастрофа Ту-104Б Грузинского УГА в районе а/п Домодедово". www.airdisaster.ru. Retrieved 15 April 2017.

[:0-4] "Soviet Transport - Scramble". www.scramble.nl. Retrieved 15 April 2017.

Aviation accidents and incidents in the Soviet Union and Russia
1950s	1950 Sverdlovsk plane crash Aeroflot Flight 4 1958 Aeroflot Tu-104 Kanash crash Aeroflot Flight 315 (1959) Aeroflot Flight 120
1960s	Aeroflot Flight 315 (1960) Aeroflot Flight 207 Austrian Airlines Flight 901 Aeroflot Flight 68 Aeroflot Flight 245 Aeroflot Flight 902 Aeroflot Flight 415 Aeroflot Flight 191 Aeroflot Flight 3 Aeroflot Flight 25 Aeroflot Flight 12 CCCP-45021 Aeroflot Flight 663 Aeroflot Flight 721 Aeroflot Flight 20 Aeroflot Flight 513 Aeroflot Flight 99 Aeroflot Flight 65 Aeroflot Flight 2723 Aeroflot Flight 5003 (1967) Aeroflot Flight 2230 Aeroflot Flight 51 Aeroflot Flight 15 Aeroflot Flight 831 Aeroflot Flight 826 1969 Yukhnov mid-air collision
1970s	Aeroflot Flight U-45 Aeroflot Flight 1661 CCCP-11000 CCCP-12996 Aeroflot Flight 1969 Aeroflot Flight 1912 Malév Flight 110 Aeroflot Flight 773 Aeroflot Flight 2174 Aeroflot Flight 1491 Aeroflot Flight 558 Aeroflot Flight 1036 Aeroflot Flight 217 Japan Airlines Flight 446 Aeroflot Flight 6263 Aeroflot Flight 141 Aeroflot Flight 630 Balkan Bulgarian Airlines Flight 307 Aeroflot Flight 6551 Aeroflot Flight 109 Aeroflot Flight 13 Aeroflot Flight 3932 Aeroflot Flight 964 Aeroflot Flight 19 Aeroflot Flight 2022 CCCP-75559 1974 Surgut mid-air collision Aeroflot Flight 2003 Aeroflot Flight 3739 (1976) Aeroflot Flight 909 Aeroflot Flight 1802 Aeroflot Flight 418 1976 Anapa mid-air collision Aeroflot Flight 2415 Aeroflot Flight 36 (1976) Aeroflot Flight 3843 Aeroflot Flight 5003 (1977) Aeroflot Flight 331 CCCP-65639 Aeroflot Flight 2 Aeroflot Flight 6709 Korean Air Lines Flight 902 Aeroflot Flight 1080 Aeroflot Flight 1691 1979 Dniprodzerzhynsk mid-air collision Aeroflot Flight 5484
1980s	Aeroflot Flight 4225 1981 Pushkin Tu-104 crash Aeroflot Flight 498 1981 Armenia mid-air collision Aeroflot Flight 811 Aeroflot Flight 3603 Aeroflot Flight 8641 Aeroflot Flight 411 Aeroflot Flight 343 Aeroflot Flight 5463 Aeroflot Flight 601 Aeroflot Flight 3352 Aeroflot Flight 3519 Aeroflot Flight 7841 Aeroflot Flight 8381 Aeroflot Flight 7425 Aeroflot Flight 101/435 Aeroflot Flight 2306 Aeroflot Flight 6502 Aeroflot Flight 892 Aeroflot Flight 505 Aeroflot Flight 528 Aeroflot Flight 3739 (1988) Korean Air Lines Flight 007
1990s	Aeroflot Flight 2808 (1992) Sakha Avia Flight 301 (1993) Aeroflot Flight 593 (1994) Stavropolskaya Aktsionernaya Avia Flight 1023 (1997)
2000s	Vladivostok Air Flight 352 (2001) Siberia Airlines Flight 1812 (2001) Pulkovo Aviation Enterprise Flight 9560 (2002) 2004 Russian aircraft bombings (2004) Armavia Flight 967 (2006) S7 Airlines Flight 778 (2006) Aeroflot Flight 821 (2008)
2010s	Smolensk air disaster (2010) Dagestan Airlines Flight 372 (2010) Kolavia Flight 348 (2011) RusAir Flight 9605 (2011) Lokomotiv Yaroslavl plane crash (2011) Red Wings Airlines Flight 9268 (2012) Tatarstan Airlines Flight 363 (2013) 2014 Vnukovo Airport Falcon 50 crash (2014) Metrojet Flight 9268 (2015) Flydubai Flight 981 (2016) 2016 Russian Defence Ministry Tupolev Tu-154 crash (2016) Khabarovsk Airlines Flight 463 (2017) Saratov Airlines Flight 703 (2018) Aeroflot Flight 1492 (2019) Ural Airlines Flight 178 (2019)
2020s	Volga-Dnepr Airlines Flight 4066 (2020)