1958 Aeroflot Tu-104 Kanash crash

Aviation accident in the Soviet Union 1958 Aeroflot Tu-104 Kanash crash Aeroflot Tu-104A CCCP-42463 ARN Jul 1966.png An Aeroflot Tu-104A, similar to the one involved in the accident Accident 17 October 1958 Severe turbulence leading to loss of control 17 miles west of Kanash, Chuvashia, Soviet Union 58 28 31 N 47 7 22 E type:event_region:RU-CU it 80 71 9 80 0 Tupolev Tu-104A Aeroflot CCCP-42362 Beijing International Airport Omsk Airport Moscow-Vnukovo Airport The 1958 Aeroflot Tu-104 Kanash crash occurred on 17 October 1958 when a Tupolev Tu-104A operated by Aeroflot flying an international route from Beijing to Moscow crashed in bad weather near the town of Kanash, Chuvashia, Soviet Union, four hundred miles east of Moscow, killing all 80 people on board. The flight was carrying high-level diplomatic delegations from numerous Soviet aligned countries such as China, East Germany, and Czechoslovakia. It was just the second fatal accident involving the Tu-104 which had been introduced into Aeroflot's inventory two years earlier, and the deadliest in the airline's history until the crash of Aeroflot Flight 902 in 1962.Ranter Harro Vliegtuigongeval op 17 OCT 1958 met Tupolev 104A CCCP-42362 - Kanash Aviation Safety Network > 1958-10-17 https://aviation-safety.net/database/record.php?id=19581017-0 2018-01-30 Aircraft The aircraft involved in the accident was a Tupolev Tu-104A, registered CCCP-42362 to Aeroflot. The Tu-104A was a relatively new aircraft at the time, having been introduced in 1956. It was based on the design of the Soviet strategic bomber, Tupolev Tu-16, but included a wider, pressurized fuselage in order to seat passengers. At the time of the accident, CCCP-42362 had sustained a mere 465 flight hours and had been in service for less than three months.Pike John Tu-104 Camel GlobalSecurity.org 2018-01-30 https://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/russia/tu-104-design.htm 2018-01-30 Passengers and crew Crew Aboard were three flight attendants and a cockpit crew consisting of:November 2025 Check Captain: Garold Dmitrievich KuznetsovNovember 2025 Captain: Anton Filimonovich ArtemovNovember 2025 Co-pilot: Igor Alexandrovich RogozinNovember 2025 Flight engineer: Ivan Vladimirovich VeselovNovember 2025 Navigator: Yevgeny Andreevich MumrienkoNovember 2025 Radio operator: Alexander Sergeevich FedorovNovember 2025 Passengers thumb|Monument to the victims of Kanash Tu-104 crash at Babaoshan Revolutionary Cemetery The passengers on board the flight consisted by and large of diplomatic delegations from numerous foreign nations, most of them Soviet allies, who were on their way to Moscow for an official event. The largest group of passengers aboard the aircraft were Soviet citizens, however a sixteen-person Chinese Communist delegation, led by prominent writer and academic Cheng Chen-to (Zheng Zhenduo) and Tsai Sha-fan, comprised the largest group of foreign citizens on the flight. The single Cambodian citizen on the flight was Cambodia's ambassador to China.Yuwu Song Biographical Dictionary of the People's Republic of China https://books.google.com/books?id=PnsjAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA418 8 July 2013 McFarland 978-0-7864-3582-1 418–Edgar A. Haine Disaster in the Air https://books.google.com/books?id=twKfXowAigIC&pg=PA187 2000 Associated University Presses 978-0-8453-4777-5 187– Nationalities NationalityPassengersCrewTotalSoviet Union17926People's Republic of China16016Czechoslovakia808East Germany505France505Hungary505Romania303Sudan303Morocco303Great Britain202Poland101Iraq101Cambodia101Laos101Total71980 Synopsis CCCP-42362 took off from Beijing en route to Moscow on 17 October 1958. It landed at its stopover in Omsk, Russia before continuing west to its final destination. As it neared Moscow-Vnukovo Airport, authorization to land was denied by controllers due to heavy fog. The pilots diverted to their alternate, Gorky Airport, before proceeding to Sverdlovsk after the weather in Gorky was also deemed unsuitable for landing. At this point the aircraft was flying at an altitude of 10,000 meters (33,000 ft) when it suddenly flew into an area of high turbulence causing the aircraft to experience a sudden and drastic increase in pitch.Ranter Harro Vliegtuigongeval op 17 OCT 1958 met Tupolev 104A CCCP-42362 - Kanash Aviation Safety Network > 1958-10-17 https://aviation-safety.net/database/record.php?id=19581017-0 2018-01-30 Caught in a powerful updraft, the aircraft abruptly reached an altitude of 12,000 meters (39,000 ft). According to one of the pilots per the cockpit voice recording, the aircraft was "standing on its hind legs", and shortly after it entered a sharp, near vertical dive followed by a spin.ru:Памяти экипажа Гарольда Кузнецова Геокэшинг http://www.geocaching.su/index.php?pn=101&cid=4934 ru 2018-01-30 Despite the efforts of the crew, the force on the aircraft's horizontal stabilizers was too great for the pilots to overcome and an impact with the ground became inevitable. The flight's pilot-in-command, Harold Kuznetsov, instructed the radio operator to transmit details about the aircraft's situation to ground controllers before shouting "... we're dying! Goodbye!", according to the black box recordings.ru:Туполев Ту-104 хЗПМПЛ ОЕВБ - вПМШЫБС БЧЙБГЙПООБС ЬОГЙЛМПРЕДЙС http://www.airwar.ru/enc/aliner/tu104.html ru 2018-01-30 At 21:30 MSK, the Tu-104A crashed near Apnerka rail station, west of the town of Kanash.November 2025 Conclusions The investigation into the crash was led by Minister of Aircraft Production Mikhail Khrunichev and Chief Air Marshal Pavel Zhigarev, the head of Aeroflot.Edgar A. Haine Disaster in the Air https://books.google.com/books?id=twKfXowAigIC&pg=PA187 2000 Associated University Presses 978-0-8453-4777-5 187– The cause of the crash was determined to be a loss of control as a result of the aircraft flying into an area of strong turbulence which caused it to exceed critical angles of attack.November 2025 This conclusion was reached by comparing the experience of other Tu-104 pilots who reported similar cases after flying at altitudes of 8,000 meters (26,000 ft)) and higher, and examination of the cockpit voice recordings.November 2025 As a result of the crash, authorities limited the maximum flight level of the Tu-104 to 9,000 meters (29,500 ft) and a redesign of the aircraft's stabilizers was undertaken.November 2025 See also Soviet Union Aviation Aeroflot Flight 04 Braniff International Airways Flight 250 United Airlines Flight 585 Eastwind Airlines Flight 517 References Category:Aviation accidents and incidents in 1958 Category:Aviation accidents and incidents in the Soviet Union Aeroflot Category:Aviation accidents and incidents involving the Tupolev Tu-104 Category:Airliner accidents and incidents caused by design or manufacturing errors Category:October 1958 in Europe Category:Transport in Chuvashia Category:Aviation accidents and incidents caused by clear air turbulence Category:1958 disasters in the Soviet Union Category:History of Chuvashia