The Tupolev Tu-104 is a medium-range, narrow-body, twin turbojet-powered Soviet airliner. It was the second to enter regular service, behind the British de Havilland Comet and was the only jetliner operating in the world from 1956 to 1958, when the British jetliner was grounded due to safety concerns.
This is a list of aviation-related events from 1973.
The Antonov An-10 Ukraina is a four-engined turboprop passenger transport aircraft designed in the Soviet Union.
Veshchevo is a rural locality on Karelian Isthmus, in Vyborgsky District of Leningrad Oblast, and a station of the Vyborg–Zhitkovo railroad. The railway track between Veshchevo and Zhitkovo was, however, dismantled in 2001. Until the Winter War and Continuation War, it had been the administrative center of the Heinjoki municipality of the Viipuri province of Finland.
Aeroflot Flight 244 was hijacked on 15 October 1970, making it the first known successful airline hijacking in the Soviet Union.
Founded in 1923, Aeroflot, the flag carrier and largest airline of Russia, has had a high number of fatal crashes, with a total of 8,231 passengers dying in Aeroflot crashes according to the Aircraft Crashes Record Office, mostly during the Soviet era, about five times more than any other airline. From 1946 to 1989, the carrier was involved in 721 incidents. From 1995 to 2017, the carrier was involved in 10 incidents. In 2013, AirlineRatings.com reported that five of the ten aircraft models involved in the highest numbers of fatal accidents were old Soviet models.
Aeroflot Flight 217 was a non-scheduled international passenger flight from Orly Airport in Paris to Sheremetyevo International Airport in Moscow, with a stopover at Shosseynaya Airport in Leningrad. On 13 October 1972, the Ilyushin Il-62 airliner operating the flight crashed on approach to Sheremetyevo, with the loss of all 164 passengers and crew of 10. At the time, it was the world's deadliest civil aviation disaster, until it was surpassed by the Kano air disaster in Nigeria in 1973. As of 2025, the crash of Flight 217 remains the second-deadliest accident involving an Il-62, after LOT Polish Airlines Flight 5055, and the second-deadliest on Russian soil, after Aeroflot Flight 3352.
Nadezhda Vladimirovna Kurchenko was a Soviet flight attendant who tried to prevent the hijacking of Aeroflot Flight 244. Having warned the crew, Kurchenko sought to block the entrance to the cockpit, which at the time was not normally locked. She was killed in a struggle with one of the hijackers.
Aeroflot Flight 811 was a scheduled Soviet domestic passenger flight from Komsomolsk-on-Amur to Blagoveshchensk that collided mid-air on 24 August 1981 with a Tupolev Tu-16K strategic bomber over Zavitinsky District in Amur Oblast, Russian SFSR, Soviet Union. The collision between Aeroflot's Antonov An-24RV and the Tupolev Tu-16K occurred at an altitude of 5,220 metres (17,130 ft), killing 37 people on both aircraft. The sole survivor, 20-year-old passenger Larisa Savitskaya, who had been aboard Flight 811, was rescued on the third day after the accident.
Aeroflot Flight 3843 was a Soviet Union commercial flight that crashed on January 13, 1977, after a left engine fire near Alma-Ata Airport. All 90 people on board perished in the crash.
Aeroflot Flight 3739 was a regularly scheduled Russian domestic flight from Irkutsk to Pulkovo Airport in Saint Petersburg that crashed during takeoff from Irkutsk International Airport on 9 February 1976. Twenty-four of the 114 people on board died in the accident.
Aeroflot Flight 109 was a scheduled domestic passenger flight from Moscow to Chita with stopovers in Chelyabinsk, Novosibirsk, and Irkutsk. On the final leg of the route on 18 May 1973 a terrorist hijacked the aircraft, demanding to be flown to China; the terrorist's bomb detonated in flight after he was shot by the air marshal. The aircraft broke-up at altitude, killing all 81 on board.
On 27 April 1974, an Aeroflot Il-18 airliner crashed while operating a charter flight from Leningrad to Zaporizhzhia, continuing to Krasnodar, Russia. The plane crashed shortly after takeoff from Pulkovo Airport in Leningrad. None of the 109 people on board survived. The engine fire was caused by the uncontained failure of a faulty compressor disk.
Aeroflot Flight B-2 was a regularly scheduled passenger flight operated by Aeroflot from Vitim Airport in the Sakha Republic to Irkutsk International Airport near Irkutsk. On 20 July 1977, the Avia 14 operating this flight crashed into trees outside the airport shortly after takeoff. Thirty-three passengers and all six crewmembers were killed, while one passenger survived.
Aeroflot Flight 19 was a scheduled passenger flight from Bykovo Airport, Moscow, to Bryansk Airport, Bryansk. On 2 November 1973, a Yak-40 aircraft operating the flight was hijacked by 4 people 10 minutes before landing. The aircraft was then diverted to Moscow's Vnukovo Airport, where the hijackers demanded a buyout and provision of a flight to Sweden. The hostages inside the aircraft were subsequently liberated after the authorities stormed the aeroplane. This is one of the first well-known cases of storming a hijacked aircraft on the territory of the USSR.
The 1981 Zheleznogorsk mid-air collision was an accident involving a Yakovlev Yak-40 jet and a Mil Mi-8T helicopter, both operated by the Russian airline Aeroflot, 11 km east of Zheleznogorsk-Ilimskiy Airport, Soviet Union, on 18 September 1981. None of the combined 40 passengers and crew on either aircraft survived.
Wider Circle is a variety television show that first aired on December 30, 1976, on Soviet Central Television.
It featured performances from both professional artists and amateur performers.
