Aeroflot Flight 773
Aeroflot Flight 773 was a scheduled domestic Soviet Union passenger flight from Moscow to Simferopol that crashed following a bomb explosion on 10 October 1971.
Aircraft
The aircraft involved was a Tupolev Tu-104B registered as CCCP-42490 to the Ukraine Civil Aviation Directorate of Aeroflot. Initially built in a 100 passenger configuration, the Tu-104 was later converted to a 115 passenger configuration. At the time of the accident, the aircraft had logged 13,062 flight hours and 10,452 pressurization cycles.Crew
Seven crew members were aboard the flight. The cockpit crew consisted of:- Captain Konstantin Romanovich Klyushnik
- Co-pilot Anatoly Yefimovich Vorobevsky
- Navigator Vladimir Alekseevich Solodyannikov
- Flight engineer Valentin Alekseevich Bezrodny
- Radio operator Viktor Ivanovich Obedkov
A policeman was also on board, but was counted as a passenger in the report.
Accident Sequence
The aircraft arrived at Moscow from Simferopol at 19:02, after which the aircraft was prepared for the return trip to Simferopol. Weather conditions at the time were overcast with low clouds and a visibility of 6 kilometers. Flight 773 took off from Vnukovo Airport at 20:16. Thirty-one seconds later the crew contacted ATC and reported that they were heading for Chornaya Gryaz. The controller ordered the aircraft to climb to. At 20:16:44 the controller contacted Flight 773 asking them if they had passed through, but there was no response. The controller attempted several times to contact the crew without success.Just seconds after the crew reported to the controller about the takeoff, an explosion tore through the aircraft, damaging the left side of the fuselage and supports to the left wing and severing control cables to the tail. The aircraft began rolling to the right with a loss of altitude. Seven kilometers from the airport at the cargo hold collapsed and some passenger seats were thrown out. Some later, the aircraft crashed at a speed of at an angle of 10-14° in a 90° right bank near the village of Baranovo, Naro-Fominsky District, some southwest of Vnukovo Airport. All 25 people on board died, including film actress Raisa Zvereva.