СССР-42444, the aircraft involved, photographed in April 1974 | |
Accident | |
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Date | 17 March 1979 (1979-03-17) |
Summary | Crashed while attempting to return to airport |
Site | Near Vnukovo Airport, Moscow, Soviet Union 53°36′2″N 37°18′32″E / 53.60056°N 37.30889°E / 53.60056; 37.30889 |
Aircraft | |
Aircraft type | Tupolev Tu-104B |
Operator | Aeroflot-Ukraine |
Registration | СССР-42444 |
Flight origin | Moscow Vnukovo International Airport |
Destination | Odessa Central Airport |
Occupants | 119 |
Passengers | 113 |
Crew | 6 |
Fatalities | 58 (57 passengers, 1 crew) |
Survivors | 61 |
Aeroflot Flight 1691 crashed near Moscow Vnukovo Airport on 17 March 1979 killing 58 of the 119 people on board. The Tupolev Tu-104B operating the flight was overloaded and the crew received a false fire alarm.
Accident sequence
Flight 1691 was due to leave for Odessa at 8:15 local time, but was delayed due to adverse weather conditions at both Odessa and Vnukovo. The Tupolev eventually took off at 19:32 local time. Five seconds after liftoff, the left engine fire alarm sounded in the cockpit. The plane continued climbing, and conducted a series of four turns back towards Vnukovo. The flaps were then deflected by 20 degrees. It then entered the glideslope at 360m and was 50m left of the runway centerline. The aircraft descended rapidly and 2.5 seconds before first impact, the crew moved the throttles to takeoff thrust and left them there, but this did nothing to save the aircraft. The first collision was the left main landing gear with some cables on a road near Vnukovo. The aircraft collided with the ground 1548 metres from the runway threshold. The left engine was torn from the aircraft as it rolled over and a fire broke out. 57 passengers and one stewardess were killed.
Investigation
The board found that the plane was overloaded. Other factors included the lack of communication between the crew and the false fire alarm caused by a mismatch of parts in the engine.
References
External links
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Topics |
Aviation accidents and incidents in 1979 (1979) | |
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Jan 30 Varig Flight 967Feb 12 Air Rhodesia Flight 827Feb 17 Air New Zealand Flight 4374Mar 14 Alia Flight 600Mar 17 Aeroflot Flight 1691Mar 26 Interflug Ilyushin Il-18 crashMar 29 Quebecair Flight 255Apr 4 TWA Flight 841Apr 23 SAETA Flight 011May 25 American Airlines Flight 191May 30 Downeast Airlines Flight 46Jun 17 Air New England Flight 248Jun 20 American Airlines Flight 293Jul 11 Garuda Fokker F28 crashJul 26 Lufthansa Cargo Flight 527Jul 31 Dan-Air Flight 0034Aug 11 Dniprodzerzhynsk mid-air collisionAug 29 Aeroflot Flight 5484Sep 14 Aero Trasporti Italiani Flight 12Oct 7 Swissair Flight 316Oct 31 Western Airlines Flight 2605Nov 11 Manises UFO incidentNov 15 American Airlines Flight 444Nov 26 Pakistan International Airlines Flight 740Nov 28 Air New Zealand Flight 901Dec 18 Mosfellsheiði air crashesDec 23 Turkish Airlines Ankara crash | |
1978 ◄ ► 1980 |
Aviation accidents and incidents in the Soviet Union in the 1970s | |
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1974 |
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1979 |
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1960–1969 ◄ 1970–1979 ► 1980–1991 |
- Aviation accidents and incidents in 1979
- Aeroflot accidents and incidents
- Aviation accidents and incidents in the Soviet Union
- 20th-century aviation accidents and incidents in Russia
- Accidents and incidents involving the Tupolev Tu-104
- 1979 in Russia
- 1979 in the Soviet Union
- Vnukovo International Airport
- Transport disasters in Moscow
- March 1979 events in the Soviet Union