Aeroflot Flight 6502

Aeroflot Flight 6502
An Aeroflot Tu-134A, similar to that involved in the accident.
Aviation Accident
Date20 October 1986 (1986-10-20)
SummaryRunway overrun due to pilot recklessness
SiteKuibyshev Airport
Aircraft
Aircraft typeTupolev Tu-134A
OperatorAeroflot
RegistrationCCCP-65766
Flight originKoltsovo Airport
StopoverKuibyshev Airport
DestinationGrozny Airport
Occupants94
Passengers87
Crew7
Fatalities70
Survivors24

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.

Background

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. 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).

Crash

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. 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. 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. Sixty-three people died during the accident and seven more in hospitals later. Among the passengers were 14 children, all of whom survived the accident. 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.

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. Kliuyev was prosecuted and sentenced to 15 years in prison, later reduced to six years served.

See also


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