Aeroflot

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Aeroflot
Аэрофлот
Aeroflot logo
Airbus A350-900 in Aeroflot's new livery
IATA code : SU
ICAO code : AFL
Call sign : AEROFLOT
Founding: 1923
Seat: Moscow , Russia
RussiaRussia 
Turnstile :

Moscow Sheremetyevo

Home airport : Moscow Sheremetyevo
Company form: PAO (Public Company )
ISIN : RU0009062285
IATA prefix code : 555
Management: Vitaly Savelyev
Number of employees: 21,600  Aeroflot (2016)
36,600 Aeroflot Group
Sales: RUB 495.9 billion 
Aeroflot Group (2016)
Passenger volume: 32.85 million  Aeroflot
50.13 million Aeroflot Group (2017)
Freight volume: 226,590 t  (2017)
Alliance : SkyTeam
Frequent Flyer Program : Aeroflot bonus
Fleet size: 244 (+ 159 orders)
Aims: National and international
Website: www.aeroflot.ru

Aeroflot - Russian Airlines ( Russian Аэрофлот - Российские авиалинии / transcription Aeroflot - Rossiskije avialinii ) , is the largest Russian airline based in Moscow and a hub at Moscow Sheremetyevo Airport . It is a member of the SkyTeam aviation alliance and was the largest airline in the world for several decades. As a state company , Aeroflot is majority owned by the Russian state.

history

Early years

February 9, 1923 is officially considered the date of birth of Russian civil aviation. The Workers and Defense Council issued a resolution that day empowering the Central Air Fleet administration to undertake technical oversight of airlines and establish a civil aviation council. On March 8, 1923, the "Association of Aviation Friends" was founded in the young Soviet Union , with the aim of collecting funds for the construction of aircraft and promoting the advantages of aviation. On March 17, the constituent assembly of the “ Dobroljot Joint-Stock Company ” ( Russian Добролёт ), the first airline of the Soviet Union, took place. In addition to the club members and officials bought at a price of 1.05  rubles issued shares . Lenin is said to have bought 60 shares.

In the same year the Ukrainian airline “Ukrwosduchput” and the Caucasian “SakAvia” were founded. Intimidated by slogans such as “If you are not a Dobroljot shareholder, you are not a citizen of the Soviet Union”, the workers donated their wages and the farmers their products to the association chaired by Feliks Dzierżyński and Michail Frunze or bought shares in Dobroljot.

15 Junkers F 13 aircraft were purchased in Germany for the new airline's first fleet . The first line from Moscow to Nizhny Novgorod was opened on July 15, 1923 with an F 13 piloted by J. N. Moiseyev. A large proportion of foreign types, especially German and American types, were to shape the image of civil aviation in the Soviet Union well into the 1930s. The AK-1 was the first domestic model to fly near Dobroljot in 1924. The company was still unable to carry out international flights and so the government of the Soviet Union extended the contract with the German-Russian airline Deruluft for flights from Moscow via Königsberg to Berlin .

On October 29, 1930, Dobroljot merged with the joint stock company Ukrwosduchput, which had taken over SakAvia in 1925, to form the "All Union Association of the Civil Air Fleet" (WO GWF).

After the creation of Aeroflot

An Ilyushin Il-14 from Aeroflot
An Aeroflot Tupolev Tu-124 in 1967
An Ilyushin Il-62 from Aeroflot in 1976
An Aeroflot Tupolev Tu-144 in 1976
Current Aeroflot logo in Cyrillic script

On February 25, 1932, the WO GWF was converted to the "Headquarters of the Civil Air Fleet" (GU GWF) and all civil aviation activities in the country were subordinated to it, with the exception of the Polar Air Fleet (Poljarnaja Awiazija), for which the Headquarters North Sea Route was responsible. The GU GWF, which has meanwhile grown into a huge association for civil aviation, was given the abbreviation “Aeroflot” on March 5th of the same year. The airline's fleet now numbered over 100 active aircraft, including some Soviet aircraft such as the ANT-9 and K-5 . One of the most important models of Aeroflot at the end of the 1930s was the Li-2 , a licensed version of the DC-3 , which was produced in several thousand copies . By 1940, Aeroflot's route network had grown to 138,700 km, on which 400,000 passengers and 58,400 tons of freight were carried that year. During the Second World War , all activities were placed in the service of the military. Transport flights were carried out to supply the enclosed Leningrad or partisans in the German hinterland, as well as the dropping of airborne troops or the transport of the wounded. From 1941 to 1945, Aeroflot carried 4.5 million people and around 400,000 t of cargo.

In the years after the end of the war, Aeroflot withdrew the models it had previously used, such as the Li-2, and replaced them with newly developed types such as the Il-12 or Il-14 . In 1956, the company was one of the first in the world to use the Tu-104, a civil jet airliner. Further milestones were the introduction of the Tu-114 and Il-18 turboprop airliners at the end of the 1950s. Large numbers of the Tu-134 and Il-62 were added to the inventory from the 1960s .

Aeroflot, the world's largest airline with around 3,000 aircraft in the 1960s, made it possible for Soviet citizens to travel very cheaply. Some of the tickets were cheaper than a train journey, and in 1967 the Spiegel wrote that a basket of cherries that was sold black in Moscow could have amortized the ticket from Crimea to Moscow. Overall, the flights were significantly shorter than in the USA, for example. According to the 1966 summer flight schedule, 1,700 flights took place daily; A total of 48 million passengers flew with the Aeroflot in 1966, whose route network covered 565,000 kilometers.

In 1975 Aeroflot began operating the Tu-144 supersonic airliner , which was discontinued just under three years later.

Aeroflot's fleet reached more than 10,000 aircraft, including around 700 larger commercial aircraft, and it supplied the entire country. In 1982 the inland route network alone comprised around 1 million kilometers with 3,600 destinations. The transport performance in that year was 500 million passengers and 14 million tons of freight. 111 destinations in 90 countries were flown to abroad. Aeroflot also operated helicopters and agricultural aircraft such as B. the Mi-6 or An-2 .

During the Cold War, Aeroflot branches were contact points for couriers and liaison officers for the Soviet secret services and, according to estimates, more than 50 percent were staffed by trained KGB , but mainly GRU agents. The Aeroflot lettering also served as a camouflage for military transport aircraft, reconnaissance aircraft and test aircraft based on basic patterns (for example Il-18, Il-76) that were actually in use by Aeroflot. The company's aircraft also took strategic aerial photographs. When the company was privatized, the impregnation of the company with the secret service network and its powerful interests, according to Alex Goldfarb, was recognized as a particular challenge during the purchase of shares by Boris Berezovsky . The manager Nikolai Gluschkow , appointed by Berezovsky, reported that with a workforce of 14,000 in 1996, he had simply sent the secret services invoices for their salaries for those 3,000 employees who were not operationally subordinate to him.

When the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, Aeroflot and its fleet of over 5,000 aircraft collapsed. Numerous companies became regionally independent and formed hundreds of individual companies. Individual companies that emerged from it now compete with Aeroflot. This has been an open joint stock company since 1992 and is listed in the RTS index . In 1993 it realigned itself and renamed itself "Aeroflot - Russian International Airlines" (ARIA) .

Business class on board an Aeroflot Airbus A330-200

Since April 14, 2006, Aeroflot has been a member of the airline alliance SkyTeam , of which, for example, Air France is also a member. At that time it was the first Russian airline in a global alliance. In February 2010 it was announced that Aeroflot within two years with Rossiya and five other smaller Russian regional airlines under the brand Aeroflot merge should: Vladivostok Avia , Kavminvodyavia , Orenair , Saravia and SAT Airlines .

On March 30, 2014, Aeroflot withdrew the last of its six Ilyushin Il-96-300s due to their long-criticized inefficiency.

In 2014 and 2015, Aeroflot suffered losses in connection with the ruble devaluation and the economic crisis. In 2016 the company made a profit again, among other things after a passenger increase of 10 percent after the discontinuation of the Transaero flights .

Destinations

Aeroflot serves a dense network of connections within Russia and also flies to numerous European cities such as London , Madrid , Paris , Rome and Vienna . There are also several long-haul destinations, including Bangkok , Hong Kong , Beijing , Los Angeles , Havana and Tokyo .

In Germany , Berlin , Dresden , Düsseldorf , Frankfurt am Main , Hamburg , Munich , Stuttgart and Hanover are served, while in Austria, in addition to Vienna, Salzburg and Innsbruck are served seasonally and in Switzerland Zurich and Geneva .

fleet

Current fleet

An Aeroflot Airbus A320-200 in Skyteam livery
An Aeroflot Airbus A330-200
Aeroflot Boeing 737-800
Aeroflot Boeing 777-300ER
An Aeroflot Sukhoi Superjet 100

As of May 2020, Aeroflot's fleet consists of 244 aircraft with an average age of 5.1 years:

Aircraft type number ordered Remarks Seats
( Business / Comfort / Economy )
Average age

(May 2020)

Airbus A320-200 72 51 equipped with winglets ; VP-BLP in Skyteam special livery; VP-BNT in retro special painting; VQ-BEJ in CSKA Moscow special livery 140 (20 / - / 120)

158 (8 / - / 150)

6.2 years
Airbus A321-200 33 25 equipped with winglets; VP-BEE in 95th Anniversary special livery; VP-BTL in Manchester United - special livery 170 (28 / - / 142)
183 (16 / - / 167)
4.5 years
Airbus A330-200 5 241 (34 / - / 207) 11.1 years
Airbus A330-300 12 296 (28 / - / 268)
300 (36 / - / 264)
302 (34 / - / 268)
8.2 years
Airbus A350-900 1 21st 22 appointed in 2007, approval from the Ministry of Commerce in 2019, delivery from Feb. 28, 2020 316 (28/24/264) 0.3 years
Boeing 737-800 48 equipped with winglets; VP-BMB in Skyteam special livery 158 (20 / - / 138)

164 (8/6/150)
168 (12 / 6- / 150)

3.6 years
Boeing 777-300ER 19th 3 VQ-BQG in Skyteam special livery 402 (30/48/324) 5.1 years
Irkut MS-21 50 Intake planned between 2020 and 2026 169 (16 / - / 153)
Sukhoi Superjet 100 54 85 World's largest fleet of Sukhoi super jets. The aircraft purchased by VEB.RF on behalf of the state with delivery from 2020 onwards are leased for 12 years. ; RA-89015 in Skyteam special livery 87 (12 / - / 75) 4.0 years
total 244 159 5.1 years
An Aeroflot Antonov An-8

To avoid high import taxes on foreign-made aircraft (which make up the vast majority of the fleet), Aeroflot has its Airbus and Boeing aircraft registered in Bermuda . Their aircraft registration numbers therefore begin with the corresponding nationality markings VP-B or VQ-B instead of those starting with RA- for aircraft registered in Russia.

A new paint job was first applied to an Aeroflot Airbus A350 in 2020. The basic color is white and the lettering “Aeroflot” has been enlarged.

Former aircraft types

An Ilyushin Il-18 from Aeroflot
An Aeroflot Antonov An-24
An Aeroflot Let L-410
A Tupolev Tu-134 from Aeroflot

Airline ownership structure

The airline Aeroflot is majority owned by the Russian state (Rosimuschtschestvo) with almost 51.2%. The Russian central securities depository NRD (34.6%), Aeroflot Finance (4.5%), Aviakapital Service (1.75%) and Rostec (1.5%) hold other larger parts of the shares . In addition, over 11,000 Russian private investors are involved in the Aeroflot Group. A good 45% of the shares are freely traded on the Moscow Stock Exchange , among others . The airline's share capital is a good 1.11 billion rubles .

Aeroflot group

Aeroflot has numerous interests in Russian airlines and companies active in the aviation sector. In addition to the 100% subsidiary airlines Donavia , Orenair and Pobeda , the Aeroflot Group holds majority stakes in Rossija (75% minus one share) and Aurora (51%). Other majority holdings exist in the provider of u. a. On-board catering at Aeromar (51%, together with LSG Sky Chefs ) and at the administration company Scherotel (100%), which looks after the airport hotel Novotel and Lounges in Terminals D, E and F at Sheremetyevo Airport . The 100% subsidiary A Technics offers aircraft maintenance services with its own hangars at Moscow-Wnukowo and Orenburg airports . Aeroflot also owns 100% of the shares in its own Aeroflot flight school not far from Sheremetyevo Airport. The financial subsidiary Aeroflot Finance is 99.99% owned by the group. This also holds shares in Aeroflot and sold 4.84% of the airline in September 2017.

Incidents

The AirDisaster.com accident database has listed a total of 127 accidents in which Aeroflot aircraft have been involved since 1953. A total of 6,875 people were killed on board the machines and 20 people on the ground. The Aviation Safety Network accident database does not provide a comprehensive overview of Aeroflot accidents throughout the Soviet Union.

When classifying these figures, however, it must be taken into account that Soviet aviation had a completely different structure than is usual in the West. The Aeroflot comprised the entire civil aviation as well as some of the military aircraft, at times around 10,000 aircraft of the civil aircraft carried the name Aeroflot. Many pilots were reserve officers and, overall, this airline was very closely linked to the Soviet Air Force. Examples of accidents:

Until 1991

Accidents are listed here which affected aircraft with Soviet aircraft registration numbers (CCCP- Note: Cyrillic letters, correspond to Latin / spoken like SSSR). Those with Russian license plates (RA-) are mentioned in the following section.

  • On April 22, 1947, an Aeroflot Douglas C-47 (CCCP-L1204) had to make an emergency landing in the middle of an unpopulated region in the arctic tundra, on the Taimyr Peninsula, after a double engine failure . All occupants survived the emergency landing, but nine of them died on the way to get help (see also Aeroflot's Douglas C-47 CCCP-L1204 accident ) .
  • On August 12, 1951, an Aeroflot Lissunow Li-2 (CCCP-L4314) crashed after a double engine failure at Wiljuisk airfield . Two of the sixteen people on board died.
The plane that crashed on August 15, 1958
  • On August 15, 1958, an Aeroflot Tupolev Tu-104 (CCCP-L5442) had an accident on the flight from Khabarovsk to Irkutsk , killing all 64 occupants. The pilots had flown into a zone with bad weather conditions. The machine got into strong updrafts, which led to engine failure and stall (see also Aeroflot flight 04 ) .
  • On October 17, 1958, a Tupolev Tu-104A of Aeroflot (CCCP-42362) crashed on the flight between Beijing and Moscow-Vnukowo after a stopover at Omsk Airport near Kanash , Soviet Union . All 71 passengers and the nine-person crew were killed. The machine unexpectedly rose from a height of about 10,000 m when flying through a strong updraft to about 12,000 m and got into an uncontrollable flight condition. As a result of the too high angle of attack, both engines failed, the machine sagged, took a steep dive and hit the ground at high speed near km 636 on the Moscow-Kazan railway line (see also the aircraft accident near Kanasch ) .
  • On November 16, 1959, an Aeroflot Antonov An-10 (CCCP-11167) crashed on a domestic scheduled flight from Moscow while landing at Lviv airport , killing all 40 occupants. The crash occurred because the angle of attack on the horizontal stabilizer reached supercritical values ​​under the prevailing icing conditions. After deploying the landing flaps, the aircraft lowered its nose and went into a dive from which it could no longer be intercepted due to the low altitude (see also Aeroflot flight 315 (1959) ) .
  • On February 26, 1960, an Aeroflot Antonov An-10 (CCCP-11180) crashed on a domestic scheduled flight from Moscow when landing at Lviv airport , killing 32 of the 33 occupants. As in the previous year, the crash occurred with an identical machine on a flight with the same flight number, because the angle of attack on the horizontal stabilizer reached supercritical values ​​under the prevailing icing conditions. After deploying the landing flaps, the aircraft lowered its nose and went into a dive from which it could no longer be intercepted due to the low altitude (see also Aeroflot flight 315 (1960) ) .
  • On December 10, 1960, an Aeroflot Antonov An-2T (CCCP-33181) had an accident on a flight from Semipalatinsk to Abai . The machine took off without a valid meteorological report and encountered very difficult weather conditions along the route. When a U-turn for the return to Semipalatinsk was flown 45 kilometers from the departure airport, several passengers moved to the rear fuselage area to the on-board toilet. This resulted in a shift in the center of gravity, which led to a stall and ultimately to the machine crashing. All 12 occupants were killed (see also Aeroflot flight 11 ) .
  • On December 17, 1961, on a flight of an Ilyushin Il-18 operated by Aeroflot (CCCP-75654) from Moscow to Sochi, one of the pilots accidentally touched the lever for activating the landing flaps at cruising altitude. The flaps were then fully extended to 40 degrees, which led to a loss of control and a crash (see also Aeroflot flight 245 ) .
  • On June 30, 1962, an Aeroflot Tupolev Tu-104 (CCCP-42370) crashed on the flight from Belaya to Omsk near Krasnoyarsk , killing all 84 people on board. While official sources reported a crash after a fire in the cockpit, physical findings suggested an accidental kill (see also Aeroflot flight 902 )
  • On July 6, 1962, an Ilyushin Il-14 of Aeroflot (CCCP-91554) crash-landed on the flight from Buxoro to Tashkent after an engine failure , whereby 11 of the 38 occupants died (see also Aeroflot flight 40 ) .
  • On February 26, 1963, an Ilyushin Il-18 W of Aeroflot (CCCP-75732) had to make an emergency landing on the frozen sea of ​​Jemlinskaya Bay. Hot air had escaped through a leaky line in engine no. 2 and hit other lines that were responsible for the electrics, fuel supply and the sail position. As a result, engines No. 1 and No. 2 failed, the propellers of which could not be brought into the sail position, but got into what is known as "windmilling"; a fire also broke out. Although at least three occupants were able to free themselves from the aircraft on their own after the emergency landing, all 10 occupants ultimately died because the temperature in the area was −18 ° C and the aircraft was only found after six days (see also the Ilyushin Il -18 CCCP-75732 of Aeroflot ) .
  • On April 4, 1963 4 turned off the engine number. An Ilyushin Il-18W Aeroflot (CCCP-75866) on a flight from Moscow to Krasnoyarsk at an altitude of 8,000 meters in the thrust reversers , which created so much drag that the pilots Lost control of the machine. The machine fell to the ground near Urachcha in Tatarstan , killing all 67 occupants (see also Aeroflot flight 25 ) .
  • On January 2, 1965, an Aeroflot Lissunow Li-2 (CCCP-63842) had an accident shortly after taking off from Derweze Airport because an empty tank was selected to power the engines due to incorrect operation of the fuel system. All 24 people on board died in the accident (see also Aeroflot flight 112 ) .
  • On January 1, 1966, an Ilyushin Il-14P of Aeroflot (CCCP-61618) suffered an engine failure while cruising from Magadan to Petropavlovsk. Since the altitude could not be maintained, the copilot suggested an emergency landing in the snow. The captain refused, however. The machine flew into the flank of Mount Yurchik, 60 kilometers northwest of Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky . All 23 occupants, 5 crew members and 18 passengers were killed ( Aeroflot's Ilyushin Il-14 CCCP-61618 accident ) .
  • On April 23, 1966, an Ilyushin Il-14P of Aeroflot (CCCP-61772) crashed on the flight from Baku to Makhachkala after problems with both engines had occurred. All 33 occupants were killed in the accident. Since the machine largely intact from the Caspian Sea was lifted, accident investigators have assumed that the pilots after the engine failure a ditching had planned (see also Aeroflot Flight 2723 )
  • On November 16, 1967, an Aeroflot Ilyushin Il-18W (CCCP-75538) crashed into a field three kilometers east of Yekaterinburg Airport shortly after taking off from Tashkent Airport . After taking off, an engine fire had occurred; however, the propeller in question could not be brought into the sail position . The increased aerodynamic drag in connection with the maximum take-off weight resulted in a loss of control and a crash at a height of 200 meters. None of the 99 passengers and 8 crew members survived the crash.
  • On March 7, 1968, an Aeroflot Tupolev Tu-124 (CCCP-45019) crashed shortly after taking off from Volgograd Airport after the pilots accidentally activated the spoilers. One of the 49 people on board, the navigator, was killed in the incident (see also Aeroflot flight 3153 ) .
  • On August 8, 1970, the pilots of an Antonov An-10 A of Aeroflot (CCCP-11188) made an emergency landing in a field 38 kilometers north of Chișinău airport after an uncontrolled engine damage and fire on engine no . 4 had come. During the emergency landing, part of the cabin floor collapsed, injuring a passenger so seriously that he died on the way to the hospital. The remaining 113 occupants survived (see also Aeroflot flight 888 ) .
  • On March 31, 1971, an Aeroflot Antonov An-10 (CCCP-11145) had an accident while approaching Luhansk Airport due to structural failure (loss of the right wing). All 65 occupants (eight crew members and 57 passengers) were killed in the accident.
  • On October 10, 1971, a Tupolev Tu-104 crashed on the flight from Moscow to Simferopol shortly after take-off due to a bomb explosion, killing all 25 occupants (see also Aeroflot flight 773 ) .
  • On May 4, 1972, an Aeroflot Yak-40 (CCCP-87778) crashed while approaching Bratsk . The cause given was the weather conditions which surprised the crew (see also Aeroflot flight W-608 ) .
  • On May 18, 1972, an Aeroflot An-10A (CCCP-11215) crashed near Kharkiv with serious consequences, killing all 122 people on board. Fatigue fractures in the fuselage structure were found to be the cause. After further investigations on other An-10, which also showed such damage, the type was taken out of service by Aeroflot in 1973.
  • On October 1, 1972, an Ilyushin Il-18W of Aeroflot (CCCP-75507) crashed into the Black Sea shortly after taking off from Sochi Airport , killing all 109 occupants. Since much of the debris was never recovered, the cause of the crash could never be clarified (see also Aeroflot flight 1036 ) .
  • On January 21, 1973, an Aeroflot Antonov An-24 (CCCP-46276) crashed after a collision with an unknown object, probably a weather balloon , killing all 39 occupants (see also Aeroflot flight 6263 ) .
  • On February 28, 1973, an Aeroflot Jak-40 (CCCP-87602) crashed shortly after taking off from Semei Airport . The cause of the crash could never be fully clarified (see also Aeroflot flight X-167 ) .
  • On May 18, 1973, a passenger detonated a bomb in an Aeroflot Tupolev Tu-104B (CCCP-42411) , causing the aircraft to crash east of Lake Baikal . All 81 inmates were killed.
  • On July 9, 1973, on a Tupolev Tu-124 on the flight from Kuibyshev to Simferopol , an uncontrolled engine damage occurred , as a result of which two of the 61 occupants died and the aircraft was badly damaged. After the incident, there was panic on board, which made it difficult to control the machine. The crew managed an emergency landing at Kuibyshev Airport (see also Aeroflot flight 5385 ) .
  • On September 30, 1973, an Aeroflot Tupolev Tu-104B (CCCP-42506) crashed into a forest four minutes after taking off at Omsk Airport, ten kilometers southwest of Yekaterinburg Airport. Obviously, a loss of power led to the failure of both artificial horizon instruments and, as a result, to a loss of control and a subsequent crash. All 100 passengers and 8 crew members were killed (see also Aeroflot flight 3932 ) .
  • On October 13, 1973, on board a Tupolev Tu-104B of Aeroflot (CCCP-42486), the artificial horizon and the heading gyro failed in flight due to a power failure in the system of both devices. Because it was already dark and cloudy , the pilots lost their bearings and crashed. All 122 people on board the plane died in the crash (see also Aeroflot flight 964 )
  • On December 16, 1973, a Tupolev Tu-124 crashed on the flight from Vilnius to Moscow due to a loss of control due to a defective horizontal stabilizer control. All 51 occupants were killed in the accident (see also Aeroflot flight 2022 ) .
  • On December 23, 1973 an Aeroflot Tupolev Tu-124W (CCCP-45044) crashed on the flight from Lviv to Kiev. In flight, a compressor blade in the left engine came loose due to a failed mounting pin, causing violent vibrations. A fire also broke out in the cabin floor. The pilots did not succeed in making an emergency landing. The crash occurred, killing all 17 occupants (see also Aeroflot flight 5398 ) .
  • On April 27, 1974, shortly after the take-off of an Ilyushin Il-18W of Aeroflot (CCCP-75559) from Leningrad Airport on a charter flight, the compressor disk on engine No. 4 exploded , as a result of which fuel lines were cut and the engine caught fire. The pilots were no longer able to reach the airport for an emergency landing. All 109 occupants died in the crash in a field (see also aviation accident near Leningrad 1974 ) .
  • On November 28, 1976, a Tu-104B (CCCP-42471) had an accident shortly after taking off from Moscow-Sheremetyevo Airport as a result of a loss of control in bad weather. All 67 passengers and six crew members were killed.
  • On December 17, 1976, the pilots of an Aeroflot Jakowlew Jak-40 (CCCP-88208) chose the wrong take-off technique when taking off from Ust-Kut airport when they inserted the landing flaps too early and reduced the pitch angle. In the dark they did not recognize the aircraft's subsequent descent. The Jak-40 hit the ground 1.5 kilometers behind the airport, killing all seven occupants (see also Aeroflot's flight accident of the Jakowlew Jak-40 CCCP-88208 ) .
  • On October 7, 1978, a Yakovlev Yak-40 crashed on the flight from Sverdlovsk to Qostanai shortly after take-off, killing all 38 occupants (see also Aeroflot flight 1080 ) .
  • On October 23, 1978, an Antonov An-24 had an accident on the flight from Stavropol to Simferopol, killing all 26 occupants. The cause of the accident was a loss of control due to icy engines, as the de-icing system was switched on too late during the flight (see also Aeroflot flight 6515 ) .
  • On August 11, 1979, two Aeroflot aircraft of the Tupolev Tu-134 type collided in the airspace of Dniprodzerzhynsk due to an error by an air traffic controller . All 178 occupants on board both aircraft were killed in the collision, including 17 football players from the then Soviet first division club Paxtakor Tashkent (see also the plane collision at Dniprodzerzhynsk ) .
  • On August 24, 1981, a Tupolev Tu-16 bomber collided seventy kilometers east of Sawitinsk , Amur Oblast (Siberia) with an Aeroflot Antonov An-24 (CCCP-46653) . All 6 occupants of the bomber and 31 of the 32 people on board the Antonov were killed. One passenger survived the crash. The cause was inadequate coordination between military and civil air traffic control (see also Aeroflot flight 811 ) .
  • On June 28, 1982, a Yakovlev Yak-42 crashed on the flight from Leningrad to Kiev due to a mechanical defect in the trim of the horizontal stabilizer. All 132 occupants were killed in the crash (see also Aeroflot flight 8641 ) .
  • On July 6, 1982, an Ilyushin Il-62 crashed on the flight from Moscow Sheremetyevo Airport to Freetown in Sierra Leone . Seconds after takeoff, an engine exploded and started a fire in the rear of the machine. The pilots shut down two engines one at a time and changed course to return to the airport. An attempt to maintain the flight altitude resulted in a stall and the aircraft crashed. Of the 90 people on board, 89 died in the crash; the last surviving passenger died two days later from his serious injuries (see also Aeroflot flight 411 ) .
  • On December 24, 1983 Antonov An-24RW crashed Aeroflot (CCCP-46617) for a stall in the go-around after a failed landing at the airport leshukonskoye from. Of the 49 people on board, only 5 survived the accident.
  • On December 4, 1984, the pilots of an Aeroflot Let L-410 MA lost control of the aircraft in the initial climb after taking off from Kostroma Airport after they lost their orientation when flying through a cloud cover due to defective artificial horizons . They succeeded in regaining control of the machine when exiting the cloud cover, but shortly afterwards they flew into a cloud cover again, whereupon there was another spatial disorientation and a crash. All 10 people on board were killed in the accident (see also Aeroflot flight F-637 ) .
  • On December 23, 1984 a Tupolev Tu-154 had an accident on the flight from Krasnoyarsk to Irkutsk. A few minutes after take-off, a low-pressure compressor disk in one of the engines broke, the flying debris damaged fuel lines and the electrical lines to another engine, and a fire broke out on board. The pilots tried to return to Jemelyanovo Airport . During the emergency landing, the plane crashed, killing 110 of the 111 passengers on board (see also Aeroflot flight 3519 ) .
  • On February 1, 1985, the pilots of an Aeroflot Tupolev Tu-134 (CCCP-65910 ) made an emergency landing in a forest, 10 kilometers from the airport, shortly after take-off from Minsk 2 airport (Belarus). Shortly after each other, both engines had failed because they had sucked in broken ice lumps from the incorrectly de-iced wings. 58 occupants, 55 passengers and 3 crew members were killed in the accident; 22 inmates survived.
Debris field from the plane that crashed on July 10, 1985
  • On February 1, 1985, the pilots of an Aeroflot Tupolev Tu-134 (CCCP-65910 ) made an emergency landing in a forest, 10 kilometers from the airport, shortly after take-off from Minsk 2 airport (Belarus). Shortly after each other, both engines had failed because they had sucked in broken ice lumps from the incorrectly de-iced wings. 58 occupants, 55 passengers and 3 crew members were killed in the accident; 22 occupants survived (see also Aeroflot flight 7841 ) .
  • On July 10, 1985, vibrations occurred during the flight of a Tupolev Tu-154 from Qarshi to Saint Petersburg after take-off due to insufficient flight speed. The pilots mistakenly assumed an engine problem as the cause and pulled the thrust levers to idle twice in a row. This increased the angle of attack by 25 °, resulting in a stall on the wings and a flame stall on the engines. The plane crashed near Uchquduq , killing all 200 people on board (see also Aeroflot flight 5143 ) .
  • On May 17, 1986 the pilots of an Aeroflot Jakowlew Jak-40 (CCCP-87928) performed prohibited aerobatic maneuvers, including a barrel roll, during a test flight . The structural load limits of the machine were exceeded, whereupon it broke in the air and fell to the ground. All five occupants were killed in the incident (see also Aeroflot aircraft accident near Khanty-Mansiysk ) .
  • On July 2, 1986, a Tupolev Tu-134 had Aeroflot (CCCP-65120) on the flight from Syktyvkar to Moscow emergency landing on the ground after a fire broke out, in which 54 of the 92 passengers died. The suspected source of fire was dangerous goods that were taken on board by a passenger (see also Aeroflot flight 2306 ) .
  • On October 14, 1986, an Aeroflot Let L-410 stalled when taking off from Ust-Maja airport . The machine crashed into the Aldan River and completely drowned in two to three minutes. All 14 occupants initially survived the crash largely uninjured, but drowned in the wreck of the machine because they could not open the doors due to the water pressure (see also Aeroflot flight 763 ) .
  • On October 20, 1986 a Tupolev Tu-134 crashed due to a pilot's error on the flight from Yekaterinburg to Grozny. Of 94 people on board, 70 died.
Recovery work on the machine that crashed on December 12, 1986
  • On December 12, 1986, a Tupolev Tu-134 crashed at Berlin-Schönefeld Airport . The pilots mistakenly approached a blocked runway during the approach. When the aircraft pushed through the low cloud cover, the crew noticed their mistake, but did not try to initiate a go - around, but changed course at the last moment. The aircraft brushed against several treetops and crashed into the adjacent forest. Of 82 people on board, 72 died (see also Aeroflot flight 892 ) .
  • On January 13, 1990, in a Tu-134A of Aeroflot (CCCP-65951) on the way from Tyumen to Ufa a fire in a cargo compartment caused the engines and electrical systems to fail . In the subsequent emergency landing near Pervouralsk ( Russia ), 27 of the 71 inmates lost their lives.
  • On March 23, 1991 shot one of Tashkent next Antonov An-24 Aeroflot (CCCP-46472) when landing in Navoi , Uzbekistan over the train out and caught fire. The four-person crew and 34 of the 63 passengers were killed. The machine is approved for 50 passengers.
  • On 26 November 1991 probably had an accident one Antonov An-24 Aeroflot due to a frozen horizontal stabilizer (CCCP-47823) with 41 people on board the go-attempt landing at Bugulma , Tatarstan , Russia . Nobody survived.

After the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991

Accidents involving aircraft with Russian aircraft registration numbers (RA) or foreign registration numbers (for leased aircraft) are listed here. Those with Soviet license plates (CCCP-) are mentioned in the previous section.

Since the early 1990s, Aeroflot's safety record, which had been very negative until then, has improved, as its fleet has been reduced by around 98% from 1992 onwards due to the regional and structural (agricultural flights etc.) division. But since 1990 there have also been a number of total losses at Aeroflot and its various "Civil Aviation Directorates" until they were dissolved or became independent. Examples:

  • On March 8, 1994, a training flight was carried out at New Delhi Airport with a Boeing 737-200 operated by the Indian Sahara Airlines (VT-SIA) . Five touch-and-go landings took place without any special incidents, after the sixth the aircraft suddenly leaned sharply to the left and crashed onto the apron of the international terminal. The burning wreckage of the machine slid against an Ilyushin Il-86 of Aeroflot, which then also caught fire and was destroyed. All four crew members of the Boeing died in the accident, four other people in the Ilyushin and one person on the apron died. The cause was the actuation of the rudder by a trainee pilot in the wrong direction during a simulated engine failure (see also flight accident at Delhi Airport in 1994 ) .
The Aeroflot Airbus A310 crashed on March 23, 1994
  • On March 23, 1994, an Aeroflot Airbus A310-300 (F-OGQS) crashed near the Siberian town of Meschduretschensk after the pilot had let his son behind the wheel. This inadvertently deactivated one of the autopilot channels, which gradually put the aircraft in an abnormal attitude, which the crew noticed too late (see also Aeroflot flight 593 ) .
The machine that crashed on September 14, 2008
  • On November 8, 1996, an Antonov An-124-100 (RA-82069) , which belonged to the Aeroflot fleet and was operated by Ajax , had an accident on a charter cargo flight from the Chkalovsky military airfield to Turin airport . The flight was an empty flight, Ferrari sports cars were to be loaded in Turin for the Sultan of Brunei . Shortly before touching down on the runway at the destination airport, the pilots made a missed approach . They then failed to pull up the machine, which was flying at a low altitude. The Antonov brushed against trees and roofs of houses in the village of San Francesco al Campo behind the airport before it finally collided with a residential building. Two of the 23 occupants of the plane were killed in the accident, and two house residents died (see also Aeroflot flight 9981 ) .
  • On 14 September 2008, a Boeing 737-500 crashed (VP-BKO) from Moscow coming during the landing approach to the airport of Perm from. All 88 inmates were killed. Although the flight was part of Aeroflot's flight plan, it was not operated by Aeroflot itself, but by its subsidiary Aeroflot-Nord under a reciprocal carriage agreement. The investigation revealed that the overtired and under the influence of alcohol had lost control after spatial disorientation (see also Aeroflot flight 821 ) .
Aeroflot's Sukhoi Superjet 100 crashed on May 5, 2019
  • On May 5, 2019, a pilot of a Sukhoi Superjet-100 (RA-89098) aircraft issued an emergency signal of a radio failure seven minutes after taking off from Moscow-Sheremetyevo for Murmansk ; According to some passengers and crew members, the plane was struck by lightning. The crew decided to return to Sheremetyevo due to the failed radio and failed autopilots. After jumping back up twice, the aircraft landed hard with maximum landing weight, and after the main landing gear failed, leaking fuel caught fire and the rear fuselage caught fire. There were 41 dead. The plane caught fire and the rear of the machine burned out (see also Aeroflot flight 1492 ) .

Trivia

Due to a change in the law, foreign pilots have been able to fly for Aeroflot since July 2014. On September 24, 2014, the German Klaus-Dieter Rohlfs (* 1968) flew from Moscow to Prague as the pilot of an Airbus A320, making him Aeroflot's first foreign pilot.

See also

Web links

Commons : Aeroflot  - collection of images

Individual evidence

  1. Board of Directors. In: aeroflot.ru. Retrieved November 24, 2015.
  2. Annual Report of the Aeroflot Group 2016 (PDF, 18.7 MB) Aeroflot, May 25, 2017, p. 101 , accessed on November 9, 2017 (Russian).
  3. Annual Report of the Aeroflot Group 2016 (PDF, 18.7 MB) Aeroflot, May 25, 2017, p. 2 ff. , Accessed on November 9, 2017 (Russian).
  4. Russian Aviation Agency : Passenger Statistics of Russian Airlines 2016/2017. (PDF, 236 KB) Retrieved January 28, 2018 (Russian).
  5. Russian Aviation Agency : Freight Statistics of Russian Airlines 2016/2017. (PDF, 238 KB) Retrieved January 28, 2018 (Russian).
  6. a b Aeroflot story. In: aeroflot.ru. Aeroflot, accessed January 25, 2017.
  7. ^ Heinz A. F. Schmidt: 50 years of Aeroflot . In: Flieger-Jahrbuch 1973 . Transpress, Berlin 1972, p. 58 .
  8. Wilfried Copenhagen : Encyclopedia Soviet aviation. Elbe – Dnjepr, Klitzschen 2007, ISBN 978-3-933395-90-0 , p. 302.
  9. a b caviar and cognac. Spiegel, September 4, 1967.
  10. Joachim Westerbarkey: The secret: On the functional ambivalence of communication structures. Springer-Verlag, 2013, ISBN 978-3-322-83908-4 , p. 87.
  11. James M. Olson: Fair Play: The Moral Dilemmas of Spying. , Potomac Books, 2006, ISBN 978-1-57488-949-9 , p. 253.
  12. Jefim Gordon , Dmitriy Komissarov: Ilyushin Il-76: Russia's Versatile Jet Freighter. ISBN 978-1857801064
  13. Jefim Gordon: Ilyushin IL-18/20/22: A Versatile Turboprop. ISBN 978-1857801576
  14. Alex Goldfarb: Death of a Dissident: The Poisoning of Alexander Litvinenko and the Return of the KGB. Verlag Simon and Schuster, 2010, ISBN 978-1-4165-6076-0 , p. 141. (Basically: Aeroflot was the most saturated of all the large state-owned companies with espionage services.)
  15. Alex Goldfarb: Death of a Dissident: The Poisoning of Alexander Litvinenko and the Return of the KGB Verlag Simon and Schuster, 2010, ISBN 978-1-4165-6076-0 , p. 142, (roughly translated: The spies had the Airline turned into a dairy cow to finance foreign activities. All heads of the foreign offices were not accountable to secret service employees and management.) Also cited as footnote 73 in Manfred Quiring: Russia: Orientation in the giant empire. Ch. Links Verlag, 2013, ISBN 978-3-86284-230-8 .
  16. Aeroflot - Phoenix from the Ashes. aero.de, September 23, 2010.
  17. Aeroflot on the way to old size? In: airliners.de. February 3, 2010, accessed January 25, 2017.
  18. Aeroflot retires the Ilyushin IL-96 from service. In: ch-aviation.com. April 1, 2014, accessed January 25, 2017.
  19. The Kremlin wants to see Russian machines in the sky. NZZ , January 31, 2017.
  20. How “Aeroflot” became the best airline in the world . In: sputniknews.com , February 17, 2017. Retrieved February 17, 2017.
  21. a b Aeroflot - Russian Airlines Fleet Details and History. In: planespotters.net. May 5, 2020, accessed on May 5, 2020 .
  22. Airbus - Orders & deliveries (English), accessed on September 11, 2018
  23. Boeing - Orders and Deliveres , accessed on September 11, 2018
  24. Aeroflot should buy locally. In: drwn.de. December 11, 2014, accessed June 30, 2016 .
  25. Aeroflot orders 100 more superjets. In: aerotelegraph.com. September 10, 2018, accessed September 11, 2018 .
  26. Ch-aviation - Aeroflot (English), accessed on October 1, 2017
  27. Rossija (airline) - Plane park (English), accessed on October 1, 2017
  28. Aeroflot - Seating Scheme , accessed October 1, 2017
  29. Almost 100 jets: Aeroflot is allowed to buy from Airbus and Boeing. In: aeroTELEGRAPH. May 3, 2019, accessed on May 3, 2019 (German).
  30. Aeroflot adds 50 MS-21s to its fleet , accessed on February 5, 2018
  31. SSJ 100 picked up an important government customer , Kommersant, October 31, 2019
  32. New livery: Aeroflot highlights Russian and becomes whiter. In: aeroTELEGRAPH. January 22, 2020, accessed on January 22, 2020 (Swiss Standard German).
  33. ^ Ownership structure of the Aeroflot Group. Vedomosti , October 27, 2017, accessed November 29, 2017 (Russian).
  34. About Aeroflot. Aeroflot, accessed November 29, 2017 (Russian).
  35. Subsidiaries of the Aeroflot Group. Aeroflot, accessed November 30, 2017 .
  36. Annual Report of the Aeroflot Group 2016 (PDF, 18.7 MB) Aeroflot, May 25, 2017, p. 138 , accessed on November 9, 2017 (Russian).
  37. Aeroflot Finance intends to sell 4.84% of Aeroflot. RNS, September 19, 2017, accessed November 29, 2017 (Russian).
  38. ^ Soviet Union - Aeroflot Operations. In: lcweb2.loc.gov. Library of Congress Country Studies, 1989, accessed July 30, 2010 .
  39. ^ Accident report Li-2 CCCP-L4314 , Aviation Safety Network (English), accessed on November 10, 2017.
  40. ^ Accident report TU-104A CCCP-42362 , Aviation Safety Network (English), accessed on August 19, 2017.
  41. ^ Accident report IL-14 CCCP-91554 , Aviation Safety Network (English), accessed on June 19, 2020.
  42. ^ Accident report IL-14 CCCP-61618 , Aviation Safety Network (English), accessed on January 14, 2018.
  43. ^ Accident report IL-18V CCCP-75538 , Aviation Safety Network (English), accessed on November 5, 2018.
  44. ^ Accident report AN-10 CCCP-11145 , Aviation Safety Network (English), accessed on March 24, 2016.
  45. ^ Accident report AN-10A CCCP-11215 , Aviation Safety Network (English), accessed on May 12, 2017.
  46. http://www.airdisaster.ru/database.php?id=104
  47. ^ Accident report Jak-40 CCCP-87602 , Aviation Safety Network (English), accessed on December 20, 2016.
  48. ^ Accident report TU-104B CCCP-42411 , Aviation Safety Network (English), accessed on June 23, 2020.
  49. ^ Accident report TU-104B CCCP-42506 , Aviation Safety Network (English), accessed on November 5, 2018.
  50. ^ Accident report Jak-40 CCCP-87772 , Aviation Safety Network (English), accessed on March 16, 2020.
  51. ^ Accident report AN-24 CCCP-46518 , Aviation Safety Network (English), accessed on March 16, 2020.
  52. ^ Accident report TU-104B CCCP-42471 , Aviation Safety Network (English), accessed on October 27, 2019.
  53. ^ Accident report AN-24 CCCP-46653 , Aviation Safety Network (English), accessed on April 11, 2020.
  54. ^ Accident report AN-24 CCCP-46617 , Aviation Safety Network (English), accessed on November 11, 2017.
  55. ^ Accident report TU-154 CCCP-85243 , Aviation Safety Network (English), accessed on August 12, 2019.
  56. ^ Accident report TU-134 CCCP-65910 , Aviation Safety Network (English), accessed on April 3, 2020.
  57. ^ Accident report TU-134 CCCP-65910 , Aviation Safety Network (English), accessed on April 3, 2020.
  58. ^ Accident report Tu-134A CCCP-65951 , Aviation Safety Network (English), accessed on June 23, 2020.
  59. ^ Accident report Jak-40 CCCP-87453 , Aviation Safety Network (English), accessed on April 1, 2020.
  60. ^ Accident report AN-24 CCCP-46472 , Aviation Safety Network (English), accessed on July 31, 2019.
  61. ^ Accident report AN-24 CCCP-47823 , Aviation Safety Network (English), accessed on July 31, 2019.
  62. ^ Accident report TU-134 CCCP-65058 , Aviation Safety Network (English), accessed on September 20, 2019.
  63. Accident report Boeing 737-200 VT-SIA , Aviation Safety Network (English), accessed on April 4, 2020.
  64. ^ Accident report An-124 RA-82069 , Aviation Safety Network (English), accessed on April 9, 2020.
  65. Disaster in the Urals: 88 dead in plane crash in Russia. In: faz.net. September 14, 2008, accessed January 25, 2017.
  66. ^ Accident report B-737-500 VP-BKO , Aviation Safety Network (English), accessed on January 14, 2018.
  67. Anna Baumbach: Aeroflot's jet catches fire. In: aerotelegraph.com. June 3, 2014, accessed January 25, 2017.
  68. Tagesschau: 41 dead and many unanswered questions.
  69. Simon Hradecky: Accident: Aeroflot SU95 at Moscow on May 5th 2019, aircraft bursts into flames during rollout and burns down. Updated May 18th. In: The Aviation Herald . May 18, 2019, accessed on May 27, 2019 .
  70. Stefan Eiselin: Who is the German at Aeroflot? In: aerotelegraph.com September 29, 2014, accessed January 25, 2017.