Aeroflot flight 04

Aeroflot flight 04
The aircraft involved in the accident on July 7, 1958 at Amsterdam Airport Schiphol
Accident summary
Accident type	Loss of control
place	31 km northwest of Talakan , Russian SFSR
date	15th August 1958
Fatalities	64
Survivors	0
Aircraft
Aircraft type	Tupolev Tu-104 A, Soviet Union
operator	Aeroflot , Soviet Union
Mark	CCCP-L5442, Soviet Union
Departure airport	Khabarovsk Airport , Russian SFSR
Stopover	Irkutsk Airport , Russian SFSR
Destination airport	Moscow Vnukovo Airport , Russian SFSR
Passengers	54
crew	10
Lists of aviation accidents

On August 15, 1958, a Tupolev Tu-104 crashed on the 1st segment of the inner-Soviet scheduled flight Aeroflot flight 04 from Khabarovsk via Irkutsk to Moscow , killing all 64 occupants. It was the first fatal accident involving a Tu-104.

Plane and crew

The aircraft was a Tupolev Tu-104A (aircraft registration СССР-Л5442, serial number : 7350303), which completed 1041 flight hours and 401 flight cycles from November 28, 1957 until the accident. When she landed in Amsterdam in July 1958 , she was photographed and filmed on Dutch television.

The crew consisted of captain Pavel Fedorovich Barabanov, the first officer Alexander Weniaminowitsch Bdojan, the flight engineer Gleb Aleksandrovich Maslennikov and to trainees Vasily Yefimovich Martynov, the Navigator Makar Makarovich Lasorko and to trainees Viktor Georgi Petrovich Drigo, the radio operator Alexander Grigorievich Anikin and flight attendants Vladimir Ivanovich Efimov, Yevgenia Fyodorovna Karnacheva and Tamara Fyodorovna Shchepinova.

course

At 9:45 p.m. local time, the Tu-104 took off in Khabarovsk with a delay of 3 hours and 35 minutes. Heavy thunderstorms with rain were predicted for the flight route. When the aircraft was 150 km from the airport at 9:50 p.m., the pilots were instructed to climb to 9,000 m in order to avoid the storm. Since it was already in cumulus clouds and could not fly over them, the air traffic controller instructed to make a right turn and then a left turn in order to gain altitude for the overflight. At 10:00 p.m. there was a shift change at the airport and the current air traffic controller gave the pilots who reported an altitude of 8,600 m, on request, to first climb with a course to Archara to 11,000 m and then to drop back to 9,000 m after the overflight . Since the aircraft was still in the clouds at that altitude, the pilots asked for further instructions. Then they should rise to 12,000 m. At 10:12 p.m. they reported that the clouds had broken through at 11,600 m. After reaching 12,000 m, the master radioed that he was above the clouds and that he could see more clouds in the distance. If he could not avoid it, he would return to Khabarovsk. The pilots replied to a radio message from the pilot at 10:18 pm "Минутку, минутку" ("One minute, one minute") and at 10:19 pm in a strained voice, which indicated an emergency on board. This was the last radio contact with the pilots.

root cause

A short time later, the burned wreck was found 31 km northwest of Talakan and 215 km northwest of Khabarovsk in a 450 m long debris field. The aircraft crashed intact at about 10:20 p.m., tilting 60 ° downwards and slightly to the right . Both engines had failed and the landing gear was extended. The weather records showed that in the area between Archara, Magdagatschi and Birobidschan , powerful cumulus clouds formed over 12,000 m and strong updrafts were blowing, neither of which was included in the weather forecast. This was also reported by Tu-16 pilots who were about 150–200 km north of Flight 04.

With a mass of 66 t, the aircraft could have climbed to a maximum of 11,700 m at normal thrust setting, which is why the engines had to run at increased thrust. Under these circumstances, small thermals already filed for a climb, was extended by the landing gear of a stall moved to it. The failure of the engines and the extended landing gear made it difficult to intercept. In addition, the pilots lost their spatial orientation in the dark night, especially since the operating limits of the artificial horizons were presumably exceeded and these displayed incorrect values.

In other incidents with the Tu-104 in the same year, there were indications that under certain circumstances at cruising altitude , which occurred both in the vicinity of thunderstorms and in clear skies, the longitudinal control was disrupted, during which, despite attempts by the crews, to maintain a stable attitude, stalled. This resulted in engine failure, landing gear extension, temporary failure of the artificial horizon, or a combination thereof. Even so, this dangerous property has never been investigated.

The investigators derived the following accident factors:

• 1) Contrary to the flight manual, the pilots did not analyze the weather situation and took off despite the adverse conditions.
• 2) The pilots had taken a break in a dispensary in Irkutsk before the flight to Khabarovsk. If the working hours had been observed, however, they should not have gone to a dispensary. This allegedly agreed delay meant that the aircraft took off 3:35 hours later, when it was already night and the weather conditions were much worse.
• 3) Insufficient preparation for navigation
• 4) An inadequate weather forecast that did not describe the development above the clouds
• 5) Unclear definition of the maximum flight altitude for the Tu-104, which did not take the mass into account
• 6) Lack of guidelines for pilots on what to do in the event of a stall

Ultimately, they saw the guilt in the two air traffic controllers and the captain. The first air traffic controller had insufficiently pointed out the actual severity of the weather situation and allowed an onward flight. The second air traffic controller acted similarly. Instead of initiating a return to the airport or alerting pilots to their misconduct, he left it with just receiving the radio. The captain, on the other hand, who took off with delay and insufficient preparation, tried at all costs to carry out the flight.

Similar accidents

Almost 2 months later , another Tu-104 crashed after being grabbed by an updraft.

swell

• Accident description (English) CCCP-L5442 on the Aviation Safety Network , accessed on June 10, 2020
• Description of the accident (Russian) on airdisaster.ru, accessed on June 10, 2020
• Description of the accident (Russian) on avia.pro, accessed on June 10, 2020

Coordinates: 49 ° 28 ′ 48 ″  N , 132 ° 34 ′ 12 ″  E