1981 Pushkin Tu-104 crash

Plane crash in Leningrad, USSR 1981 Pushkin Tu-104A crash 1981 02 07 y Improper cargo loading Accident Aeroflot Tupolev Tu-104B CCCP-42444.jpg A Tu-104 similar to the accident aircraft. This would crash as Aeroflot Flight 1691. 20 meters southwest of the runway at Pushkin Airport 59 40 29.1 N 30 19 26.5 E type:airport inline,title Pushkin Airport Khabarovsk Novy Airport Vladivostok Int'l Airport(1981: Knevichi Airport) 50 44 6 50 0 Tupolev Tu-104A Pacific Fleet of the Soviet Navy CCCP-42332 On 7 February 1981, a Tupolev Tu-104A passenger jet crashed during take off from Pushkin Airport near Leningrad, Soviet Union, resulting in the death of all 50 people on board, including 28 high-ranking Soviet military personnel. The official investigation concluded that the aircraft was improperly loaded. Accident At 18:00 local time, the Tu-104A lined up on runway 21 and commenced its take-off run during snowing weather conditions. After rotation, the aircraft pitched up beyond normal take-off attitude, and eight seconds after lift off, at an altitude above ground level of 50 m ft on, the Tupolev stalled and entered a right bank. The aircraft continued to roll right until it struck the ground 20 m ft on from the departure end of the runway, crashing nearly inverted and bursting into flames, killing 49 of the 50 people on board. One person in the cockpit was ejected from the nose of the aircraft, and was found alive in the snow not far from the crash site, but died on the way to a hospital.https://www.baaa-acro.com/crash/crash-tupolev-tu-104a-pushkin-50-killed Crash of a Tupolev TU-104A in Pushkin: 50 killed baaa-acro.com 2023-03-19https://aviation-safety.net/database/record.php?id=19810207-0 Accident description 7 February 1981 aviation-safety.net 2018-07-07http://nvo.ng.ru/notes/2008-04-11/8_admiral.html Even the admiral will not abolish the laws of aerodynamics 2008-11-04 nvo.ng.ru ru 2018-07-15 https://web.archive.org/web/20260416141511/https://nvo.ng.ru/notes/2008-04-11/8_admiral.html live 2026-04-16 Aircraft The Tupolev Tu-104A involved was initially registered as СССР-Л5426 (Cyrillic, usually rendered as CCCP-L5426 in English-language publications); construction was completed on 26 July 1957. The aircraft was sent to Aeroflot's Far East division. In 1959 it was re-registered to CCCP-42332 and continued flying with Aeroflot until 6 October 1961, when it was transferred to the Soviet Navy.https://www.scramble.nl/database/soviet/details/173_67249 Tu-104A c/n 76600402 2011-02-01 Soviet Transport Database 31 January 2025 Investigation The investigation of the accident revealed that the crew allowed the aircraft to be improperly loaded. Evidence was uncovered that led investigators to believe that some military officers did not comply with seating assignments given by the crew and that these officers pressured the crew to make the flight in an unsafely loaded aircraft. Another factor reported by witnesses was that large rolls of printing paper were loaded on board, and these are believed to have rolled rearward during acceleration on take-off, causing the center of gravity to shift aft of acceptable limits, thereby reducing the stability of the aircraft in pitch, making lowering the nose impossible for the crew, and the crash inevitable. Casualties thumb|right|Memorial in the Serafimovskoe Cemetery, St Petersburg to those who died in the 1981 crash The Tupolev Tu-104A was carrying many of the Pacific Fleet's senior officers from Leningrad, where they had been attending meetings with the naval command, to Vladivostok, via Khabarovsk. Among the dead were 16 admirals and generals, including the commander of the Pacific Fleet, Admiral Emil Spiridonov, and his wife. They were both interred with most of the other victims of the crash in the Serafimovskoe Cemetery in Leningrad, where a memorial to the dead was erected on the orders of the Navy's commander-in-chief, Sergey Gorshkov.Koshelev S. ЧЕРНЫЙ ФЕВРАЛЬ BLACK FEBRUARY http://gazetam.ru/no030301/st03.htm 8 April 2019 Morskaya Gazeta ru 10 April 2019 https://web.archive.org/web/20190410110756/http://gazetam.ru/no030301/st03.htm dead A memorial service is held annually on 7 February at the St. Nicholas Naval Cathedral in St Petersburg, and on the 20th anniversary of the crash, the line: "Those who died in the line of duty on 7 February 1981", and an Orthodox cross were added to the memorial stele commemorating the Pacific Navy sailors. See also 1972 Puerto Rico DC-7 crash References Category:Aviation accidents and incidents in 1981 Category:Aviation accidents and incidents involving the Tupolev Tu-104 Category:Aviation accidents and incidents in the Soviet Union Category:20th-century aviation accidents and incidents in Russia Category:February 1981 in the Soviet Union Category:1981 in Russia Category:Soviet Navy Category:1981 disasters in the Soviet Union External links YouTube summary of accident: When the Soviet Navy Lost 16 Admirals in a Single Accident: The Tu-104 Crash at Pushkin