Flight accident involving the Tupolev Tu-134 LZ-TUR of the Balkan Bulgarian Airlines
| Flight accident involving the Tupolev Tu-134 LZ-TUR of the Balkan Bulgarian Airlines | |
|---|---|
_at_Euroairport.jpg) The accident machine |
|
| Accident summary | |
| Accident type | Controlled flight into terrain |
| place | near Kriwina , Sofia Oblast , Bulgaria.svg){kind=small}
|
| date | January 10, 1984 |
| Fatalities | 50 |
| Survivors | 0 |
| Aircraft | |
| Aircraft type |
 Tupolev Tu-134
|
| operator |
Balkan Bulgarian Airlines
|
| Mark |
LZ-TUR
|
| Departure airport |
Berlin-Schönefeld Airport , German Democratic Republic
|
| Destination airport |
Sofia Airport , Bulgaria
|
| Passengers | 45 |
| crew | 5 |
| Lists of aviation accidents | |
The air accident of the Tupolev Tu-134 LZ-TUR of Balkan Bulgarian Airlines occurred on January 10, 1984. On that day, crashed one with 50 passengers on an international scheduled flight from East Berlin to Sofia located Tupolev Tu-134 of the Balkan Bulgarian Airlines shortly before the planned landing.
machine
The affected machine was a 1974 Tupolew Tu-134A, which had the factory number 4352308 and the model serial number 23-08 and was nine years and eight months old at the time of the accident. The first flight of the machine took place in May 1974. In the same month the Tu-134 was delivered to the Balkan Bulgarian Airlines and put into operation with the latter with the aircraft registration LZ-TUR . The twin short-range narrow-body aircraft was with 72 seats for passengers and two Turbojettriebwerken type Solowjow D-30 II equipped.
Passengers and crew
On board the machine were a five-person crew and 45 passengers, seven of whom were GDR citizens. The captain of the plane was Kyril Velinow (Кирил Велинов). The first officer, who had taken a seat in the cockpit of the aircraft in Berlin, had to vacate his seat when an inspector from the Bulgarian state aviation inspection boarded shortly before departure and ordered the first officer to leave.
| nationality | Passengers | crew | total |
|---|---|---|---|
|
German Democratic Republic
|
7th | - | 7th |
|
Bulgaria
|
38 | 5 | 43 |
| total | 45 | 5 | 50 |
the accident
The plane took off at 4:40 p.m. from Berlin-Schönefeld Airport on a scheduled flight to Sofia . The approach to the destination airport was carried out during a snow storm with poor visibility. The master attempted to lower the engine below the decision height in order to establish visual contact with reference points on the ground. After the captain realized late that his decision had been incorrect, he decided to initiate a go - around at a height of 80 to 100 meters . In the next few moments, the Tupolev grazed the treetops and a power line and fell at 7:38 p.m. at a distance of 4.2 kilometers from the runway in the cowshed of a cooperative farm (TKZS) and burned out, no one survived.
causes
The decision of the cockpit crew to continue the approach below the glide path was initially stated as the cause of the accident, although visual contact with the runway could not be established.
After the political upheaval in Bulgaria (post-socialism), a book by the author Tswetan Tsakow was published in 1994. In it he describes how evaluations of the cockpit voice recorder would have shown that the captain had been compelled by the boarding inspector to carry out the approach blind:
I: "Командире, заповядвам ви да изпълните сляпо кацане, само по уреди" ("Captain, I order you to land blind, only with instruments")
K: "по уреди ") ("In this storm, with precipitation and thunderstorm?")
I: "Спусни пердетата и изпълнявай!" ("Fold down the curtains and go through!")
K: "Вие луд ли сте, другарю проверяващ - ще се пребием всички!" ("Are you crazy, Comrade Inspector? We will all die!")
The autopsy of the crash victims also showed that there were initially survivors after the crash. Traces of crushed chalk were found in the lungs of some victims. During the extinguishing work at the crash site, the firefighters were instructed to smother the fire with chalk instead of extinguishing it with extinguishing foam. The pathological findings allow the conclusion that some of the victims who survived the crash were suffocated by fire fighting work.
swell
- На 10 януари 1984 г., самолет на "Балкан" се разбива край София , Dnewnik.bg of January 9, 2009 (Bulgarian)
- Line machine of the "Balkans" crashed near Sofia , Neues Deutschland from January 12, 1984, page 1.
- Condolences on the airplane accident in Bulgaria , Neues Deutschland from January 12, 1984, page 1.
- AROUND THE WORLD; 50 Said to Die in Crash Of Bulgarian Airliner , New York Times / Associated Press , Jan 11, 1984, 7.
- Tsvetan Tsakov (1994): Катастрофите, мъртвите, виновните ("Disasters, the dead, the guilty"). Sofia: Meridian Press.
Coordinates: 42 ° 41 ′ 31 ″ N , 23 ° 28 ′ 20 ″ E