The Ilyushin Il-86 is a short- to medium-range wide-body jet airliner that served as the USSR's first wide-bodied aircraft. Designed and tested by the Ilyushin design bureau in the 1970s, it was certified by the Soviet aircraft industry, manufactured and marketed by the USSR.
Aviaarktika was a Soviet airline which started operations on 1 September 1930 and was absorbed by Aeroflot on 3 January 1960.
Vnukovo Airlines was a Russian airline which had its corporate headquarters at Vnukovo International Airport in Moscow. It was created as a spin-off from the Vnukovo Airport division of Aeroflot in March 1993 and operated until 2001, when it was bought by Siberian Airlines.
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, the Soviet Union's national carrier, experienced a number of serious accidents and incidents during the 1970s. The airline's worst accident during the decade took place in August 1979, when two Tupolev Tu-134s were involved in a mid-air collision over the Ukrainian city then named Dniprodzerzhinsk, with the loss of 178 lives. Including this event, there were nine deadly incidents with more than 100 fatalities, while the total recorded number of casualties was 3,541 for the decade.
Following is a list of accidents and incidents Aeroflot experienced in the 1960s. The deadliest event the Soviet Union's flag carrier went through in the decade occurred in November 1967, when an Ilyushin Il-18V crashed upside down shortly after takeoff from Koltsovo Airport in Sverdlovsk, then located in the Russian SSR, killing all 107 occupants on board, prompting the temporary grounding of the type within the airline's fleet. In terms of fatalities, the accident ranks as the fifth worst involving an Il-18, as of April 2016. Another aircraft of the type was involved in the second deadliest accident the airline experienced in the decade, this time in September 1964, when 87 people were killed when the aircraft struck a hillside on approach to Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk. The decade was also marked by the only deadly accident experienced by a Tupolev Tu-114, which entered commercial service on the Moscow–Khabarovsk route in April 1961.
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 1973. As of 2023, this remains the second-deadliest accident involving an Il-62, after LOT Flight 5055, and the second-deadliest on Russian soil, after Aeroflot Flight 3352.
Aeroflot Flight 721 was a scheduled domestic passenger flight between Moscow and Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk in the Russian SFSR. On Wednesday, 2 September 1964, the aircraft flying this route, an Ilyushin Il-18V, crashed into the side of a hill on approach to Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk, killing 87 of the 93 people on board. At the time of the accident, it was the deadliest Il-18 crash and the deadliest aviation accident on Russian soil.
Aeroflot Flight 2230 was a Soviet domestic passenger flight from Yekaterinburg to Tashkent. On 16 November 1967, the Ilyushin Il-18 aircraft serving the flight crashed after takeoff, killing all 107 people aboard. At the time it was the deadliest aviation accident in the Russian SFSR and the worst accident involving the Il-18.
Aeroflot Flight 1036 was a domestic scheduled passenger flight operated by Aeroflot that crashed during takeoff from Sochi International Airport on 1 October 1972. All 109 people aboard the Ilyushin Il-18V perished in the crash. It is the second worst accident involving an Ilyushin Il-18 and it was the worst accident involving one at the time.
Following is a list of accidents and incidents Aeroflot experienced in the 1950s. The deadliest event the Soviet Union's flag carrier went through in the decade occurred in October 1958, when a Tupolev Tu-104 crashed en route to Sverdlovsk, then located in the Russian SSR, killing all 80 occupants on board. In terms of fatalities, the accident ranks as the eighth worst accident involving a Tu-104, as of July 2016. Another aircraft of the type was involved in the second deadliest accident the airline experienced in the decade, this time in August 1958, when 64 people were killed when the aircraft crashed near Chita after entering an updraft. The Tu-104's tail was modified and the service ceiling lowered in the wake of these two accidents.
Aeroflot Flight 5003 was a scheduled passenger flight from Tashkent to Mineralnye Vody with a stopover in Nukus; the Ilyushin 18V operating the route on 15 February 1977 crashed near the district of Mineralnye Vody while climbing after a missed approach. Of the 98 people on board, 77 perished in the crash.
Aeroflot Flight 343 (SU343/AFL343) was a passenger flight from Moscow-Sheremetyevo Airport to Jorge Chávez International Airport, on a stopover at Luxembourg-Findel International Airport, that veered off the runway on 29 September 1982, fatally injuring seven occupants. The Ilyushin Il-62M operating the flight suffered a mechanical failure.
Aeroflot Flight 558 was a scheduled Ilyushin Il-18V domestic passenger flight from Karaganda to Moscow that crashed into a field in the Abzelilovsky District on 31 August 1972 as a result of a fire stemming from exploded passenger baggage, killing all 102 people on board.
Aeroflot Flight 101/X-20 was a scheduled domestic passenger flight from Moscow to Alma-Ata via Omsk, Soviet Union, that crashed in low visibility conditions on 4 January 1965, killing 64 of the 103 people 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 207 was a Soviet domestic passenger flight from Rostov-on-Don Airport to Tbilisi International Airport that crashed on 10 June 1960 in the Tkvarcheli district. The crash involved an Ilyushin Il-14 aircraft operated by Aeroflot. There were 24 passengers and 7 crew on board, all of whom perished in the crash.
Aeroflot Flight 10 was a scheduled passenger flight from Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk Airport to Vnukovo Airport with stopovers at Krasnoyarsk Airport and Severny Airport. On 27 September 1954, the Ilyushin Il-12 operating the route crashed near Severny Airport after it struck trees.
Aeroflot Flight 365 was a domestic passenger flight from Shosseynaya Airport to Ülemiste Airport. On 5 September 1958, the aircraft operating the route was hijacked and made an emergency landing at Jõhvi. All occupants, except for the hijacker, managed to evacuate before the fuselage burned out.
