Aeroflot Flight 3932 was a flight operated by

Aeroflot PJSC AeroflotRussian Airlines (, ), commonly known as Aeroflot ( or ; , , ), is the flag carrier and the largest airline of Russia. Aeroflot is headquartered in the Central Administrative Okrug, Moscow, with its hub being Sheremetyevo Interna ...

from Sverdlovsk-Koltsovo to

Omsk Tsentralny Airport Central Airport ( ) is an airport in Omsk Oblast, Russia, located 5 km southwest of Omsk. It is capable of handling wide-bodied aircraft. 975,000 passengers passed through the airport in 2013. Airlines and destinations Accidents and in ...

. On 30 September 1973, the

Tupolev Tu-104 The Tupolev Tu-104 (NATO reporting name: Camel) is a medium-range, narrow-body, twin turbojet-powered Soviet airliner. It was the second to enter regular service, after the British de Havilland Comet and was the only jetliner operating in the wo ...

operating the route crashed shortly after takeoff from Sverdlovsk, killing all 108 passengers and crew on board.

Aircraft

The aircraft involved in the accident was a Tupolev Tu-104B with two Mikulin AM-3M-500 engines, registered CCCP-42506, originally to the Uzbekistan division of the state airline, Aeroflot. At the time of the accident, the aircraft sustained had 20,582 flight hours and 9412 pressurization cycles. The aircraft had 100 passenger seats, hence it was at full capacity when it crashed.

Crew

Eight crew members were aboard Flight 3932. The cockpit crew consisted of: *

Captain Captain is a title, an appellative for the commanding officer of a military unit; the supreme leader or highest rank officer of a navy ship, merchant ship, aeroplane, spacecraft, or other vessel; or the commander of a port, fire or police depa ...

Boris Stepanovich Putintsev *

Copilot In aviation, the first officer (FO), also called co-pilot, is a Aircraft pilot, pilot in addition to the Pilot in command, captain, who is the legal commander. In the event of incapacitation of the captain, the first officer will assume command ...

Vladimir Andreevich Shirokov *

Navigator A navigator is the person on board a ship or aircraft responsible for its navigation.Grierson, MikeAviation History—Demise of the Flight Navigator FrancoFlyers.org website, October 14, 2008. Retrieved August 31, 2014. The navigator's prim ...

Pyotr Gavrilivich Kanin *

Flight engineer A flight engineer (FE), also sometimes called an air engineer, is a member of an aircraft's flight crew who is responsible for monitoring and operating its complex aircraft systems. In the early era of aviation, the position was sometimes referr ...

Ivan Yakovlevich Raponov

Synopsis

Weather conditions at Sverdlovsk (now known as

Yekaterinburg Yekaterinburg (, ; ), alternatively Romanization of Russian, romanized as Ekaterinburg and formerly known as Sverdlovsk ( ; 1924–1991), is a city and the administrative centre of Sverdlovsk Oblast and the Ural Federal District, Russia. The ci ...

) were reported to be mild; visibility was over 6 kilometers, and light northwest winds. Flight 3932 was on the Sverdlovsk-

Vladivostok Vladivostok ( ; , ) is the largest city and the administrative center of Primorsky Krai and the capital of the Far Eastern Federal District of Russia. It is located around the Zolotoy Rog, Golden Horn Bay on the Sea of Japan, covering an area o ...

route with stopovers at

Omsk Omsk (; , ) is the administrative center and largest types of inhabited localities in Russia, city of Omsk Oblast, Russia. It is situated in southwestern Siberia and has a population of over one million. Omsk is the third List of cities and tow ...

Novosibirsk Novosibirsk is the largest city and administrative centre of Novosibirsk Oblast and the Siberian Federal District in Russia. As of the 2021 Russian census, 2021 census, it had a population of 1,633,595, making it the most populous city in Siber ...

(Tolmachevo), Chita (Kadala), and

Khabarovsk Khabarovsk ( ) is the largest city and the administrative centre of Khabarovsk Krai, Russia,Law #109 located from the China–Russia border, at the confluence of the Amur and Ussuri Rivers, about north of Vladivostok. As of the 2021 Russian c ...

airports. The flight crashed shortly after takeoff on the Sverdlovsk-Omsk part of the route. The flight took off from Sverdlovsk - Koltsovo Airport at 18:33 MSK (Moscow time) and at 18:34:21 headed on a bearing of 256° for the route to Omsk. As a routine procedure, air traffic control instructed the crew to make a left turn and climb to an altitude of after takeoff; the crew responded that they would report when they reached the altitude. At 18:35:25 MSK, 5–6 seconds after setting the engines to standard power, with an altitude of and a speed of the crew began the left turn while in the clouds, with a bank angle between 35-40°. At 20:37 local time (18:37 Moscow time), when the flight was at an altitude of , the bank angle reached 75-80°, after which the crew completely lost control of the aircraft. The plane crashed into a nearby forest at a speed of .

Cause

The aircraft crashed due to incorrect indications by the main artificial horizon and the compass system, caused by a failure of the electrical supply, resulting in

spatial disorientation Spatial disorientation is the inability to determine position or relative motion, commonly occurring during periods of challenging visibility, since visual system, vision is the dominant sense for orientation. The auditory system, vestibular system ...

of the pilots. The aircraft crashed approximately five miles from Koltsovo Airport.

References

{{coord, 56, 42, 41, N, 60, 38, 41, E, source:RU-wiki, display=title Accidents and incidents involving the Tupolev Tu-104 Aviation accidents and incidents in the Soviet Union 20th-century aviation accidents and incidents in Russia Airliner accidents and incidents caused by electrical failure Aviation accidents and incidents in 1973 1973 in the Soviet Union 1973 in Russia 3932 September 1973 in the Soviet Union

Aircraft

Crew

Synopsis

Cause

See also

References