Aviation Accident | |
---|---|
Date | 20 October 1986 |
Summary | Runway overrun due to pilot recklessness |
Site | Kuibyshev Airport |
Aircraft | |
Aircraft type | Tupolev Tu-134A |
Operator | Aeroflot |
Registration | CCCP-65766 |
Flight origin | Koltsovo Airport |
Stopover | Kuibyshev Airport |
Destination | Grozny Airport |
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]
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]
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 en route to hospital. [4] Kliuyev was prosecuted and sentenced to 15 years in prison, later reduced to six years served. [5] [4]
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