Aeroflot Flight 902

Aeroflot Flight 902 was a flight on scheduled domestic service from Khabarovsk to Moscow with intermediate stops at Irkutsk and Omsk in the Soviet Union. The flight was operated by a Tu-104A aircraft. On 30 June 1962, with 62 adult passengers, 14 children and 8 crew members, the flight departed Irkutsk on schedule, and made a scheduled report 50 kilometers from Krasnoyarsk. A few minutes later, an agitated voice later identified as that of the second pilot made an incoherent emergency transmission with a background of an unusual noise, and repeated attempts to contact the flight failed. Its wreckage was found 28 kilometers east of Krasnoyarsk airport in flat terrain with small areas of forest. Investigators subsequently determined that the plane had impacted the ground upside-down at an angle of 40 degrees. There were no survivors.[1]

Aeroflot Flight 902
A Tupolev Tu-104A, similar to the accident aircraft
Accident
Date30 June 1962 (1962-06-30)
SummaryStall, loss of control (official) / Accidental shootdown (unofficial)
SiteBeryozovsky District, Krasnoyarsk Krai, Soviet Union
Aircraft
Aircraft typeTupolev Tu-104A
OperatorAeroflot/Far East
RegistrationСССР-42370
Flight originKhabarovsk Airport
1st stopoverOmsk Airport
2nd stopoverIrkutsk Airport
DestinationVnukovo Airport
Occupants84
Passengers76
Crew8
Fatalities84
Survivors0

Cause of disaster

The official cause of the disaster was reported at the time to be a stall and loss of spatial orientation in clouds, or a loss of control due to a fire in the passenger cabin or other unknown reasons. However, damage found on the port side of the fuselage (specifically, an entry hole with signs of fire damage on the inside) was consistent with damage that could be caused by an anti-aircraft missile, and there was unofficial confirmation that an anti-aircraft missile had gone astray during an air defense exercise in the area.[1]

Unofficial sources indicated that a fragment of the fuselage was found with a 20 centimeter hole and fire damage, indicating a high-speed impact. At the time of the crash, a unit at nearby Magansk had fired anti-aircraft missiles in an exercise. Supposedly, the responsible missile had lost its intended target in a storm front before hitting the Tu-104.[2]

References

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General


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