1958 Aeroflot Tu-104 Kanash crash

(Redirected from 1958 Aeroflot Тu-104 Kanash crash) Aviation accident in the Soviet Union

1958 Aeroflot Тu-104 Kanash crash
Accident
An Aeroflot Tu-104A, similar to the one involved in the accident
Date	17 October 1958
Summary	Severe turbulence leading to loss of control
Site	17 miles west of Kanash, Chuvashia, Soviet Union 58°28′31″N 47°7′22″E / 58.47528°N 47.12278°E / 58.47528; 47.12278
Aircraft
Aircraft type	Tupolev Tu-104A
Operator	Aeroflot
Registration	CCCP-42362
Flight origin	Beijing International Airport
Stopover	Omsk Airport
Destination	Moscow-Vnukovo Airport
Occupants	80
Passengers	71
Crew	9
Fatalities	80
Survivors	0

The 1958 Aeroflot Тu-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.

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.

Passengers and crew

Crew

Aboard were three flight attendants and a cockpit crew consisting of:

Check Captain: Garold Dmitrievich Kuznetsov
Captain: Anton Filimonovich Artemov
Co-pilot: Igor Alexandrovich Rogozin
Flight engineer: Ivan Vladimirovich Veselov
Navigator: Yevgeny Andreevich Mumrienko
Radio operator: Alexander Sergeevich Fedorov

Passengers

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.

Nationalities

Nationality	Passengers	Crew	Total
Soviet Union	17	9	26
People's Republic of China	16	0	16
Czechoslovakia	8	0	8
East Germany	5	0	5
France	5	0	5
Hungary	5	0	5
Romania	3	0	3
Sudan	3	0	3
Morocco	3	0	3
Great Britain	2	0	2
Poland	1	0	1
Iraq	1	0	1
Cambodia	1	0	1
Laos	1	0	1
Total	71	9	80

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.

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. 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. At 21:30 MSK, the Tu-104A crashed near Apnerka rail station, west of the town of Kanash.

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. 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. 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. 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.

References

^ Ranter, Harro (1958-10-17). "Vliegtuigongeval op 17 OCT 1958 met Tupolev 104A CCCP-42362 - Kanash". Aviation Safety Network >. Retrieved 2018-01-30.
Pike, John (2018-01-30). "Tu-104 Camel". GlobalSecurity.org. Retrieved 2018-01-30.
Yuwu Song (8 July 2013). Biographical Dictionary of the People's Republic of China. McFarland. pp. 418–. ISBN 978-0-7864-3582-1.
^ Edgar A. Haine (2000). Disaster in the Air. Associated University Presses. pp. 187–. ISBN 978-0-8453-4777-5.
Памяти экипажа Гарольда Кузнецова. Геокэшинг (in Russian). Retrieved 2018-01-30.
Туполев Ту-104. хЗПМПЛ ОЕВБ - вПМШЫБС БЧЙБГЙПООБС ЬОГЙЛМПРЕДЙС (in Russian). Retrieved 2018-01-30.

Aeroflot

Part of SkyTeam alliance

Subsidiaries

Active	Pobeda Rossiya
Inactive	Dobrolet Donavia Orenair SAT Airlines Vladivostok Air
Exited	Aurora Nordavia (now Smartavia)

Fleet

Accidents and
incidents

1940s	G-2 Alma-Ata crash ANT-20bis crash CCCP-Л1450 crash Flight 17
1950s	Il-12 Karaganda crash Il-12 Novosibirsk crash Kemerovo mid-air collision Flight 229 Flight 783 Flight 10 Flight 136 Flight 214 Flight 229 Kiev mid-air collision Flight 11 Flight 10 Flight 105 Flight 04 Flight 365 Flight 164 Il-12 Lazo crash Тu-104 Kanash crash Flight 200 Flight 315
1960s	Flight 315 Flight 207 Flight 036 Flight 068 Flight 245 Flight 902 Flight 415 Flight 03 Flight 213 Flight 191 Flight 25 Flight 012 Flight 366 Flight 663 Flight 721 Flight 101/X-20 Flight 542 Flight 513 Flight 99 Flight 065 Flight 2723 Flight 5003 Flight 2230 Flight L-51 Flight 1668 Flight 15 Flight 831 Flight F-28 Flight N-826
1970s	Flight U-45 Flight 1661 Flight 3630 CCCP-11000 crash CCCP-12996 crash Flight 1969 Flight 1912 Flight 773 Flight N-63 Flight 2174 Flight 1491 Flight 558 Flight 1036 Flight 217 Flight 6263 Flight 141 Flight 630 Flight X-167 Flight 6551 Flight 109 Flight A-13 Flight 3932 Flight 964 Flight 19 Flight 2022 Flight 2420 CCCP-75559 crash Flight 662 Flight E-15 Flight A-53 Flight 2003 Flight 3739 Flight 909 Flight 1802 Flight 418 Flights 7957 and 31 Flight 2415 Flight N-36 Flight 3843 Flight 5003 Flight 331 Flight B-2 Flight 6709 Flight 1080 Flight 6515 Flight 1691 Flights 7628 and 7880 Flight 5484
1980s	Flight 4225 Flight 498 Flight 811 Flight 3603 Flight 8641 Flight 411 Flight 343 Flight 5463 Flight 601 Flight 3352 Flight F-637 Flight 3519 Flight 7841 Zolochiv mid-air collision Flight 5143 Flight 101/435 Flight F-77 Flight 2306 Flight 6502 Flight 892 Flight U-505 Flight N-528 Flight 699 Flight 3739
since 1990s	Flight E-35D CCCP-46472 crash Flight 2808 Flight 593 Flight 521 Flight 821 Flight 1492

Tupolev Tu-16 family

Military

Civilian

Foreign
production

Xi'an
(China)

NATO
reporting names

Topics

Accidents and incidents (Tu-134)

v t e Aviation accidents and incidents in 1958 (1958)
Jan 15 Channel Airways DH.104 DoveFeb 5 Tybee Island mid-air collisionFeb 6 Munich air disasterFeb 27 Winter Hill disasterApr 6 Capital Airlines Flight 67Apr 21 United Airlines Flight 736May 20 Capital Airlines Flight 300May 25 Dan Air Avro YorkJun 2 Aeronaves de México Flight 111Jun 9 Aeroflot Flight 105Jun 27 Westover Air Force Base KC-135 crashAug 9 Central African Airways Flight 890Aug 14 KLM Flight 607–EAug 15 Aeroflot Flight 4Aug 15 Northeast Airlines Flight 258Sep 2 London Vickers VikingSep 2 1958 C-130 shootdown incidentSep 5 Aeroflot Flight 365Sep 7 Aeroflot Flight 164Sep 19 Lazo Il-12 crashSep 20 Syerston Avro Vulcan crashOct 17 Aeroflot Тu-104 Kanash crashOct 22 BEA Flight 142Dec 4 Aviaco LanguedocDec 24 BOAC Bristol Britannia
1957 ◄ ► 1959

Aviation accidents and incidents in 1958 (1958)

Jan 15 Channel Airways DH.104 DoveFeb 5 Tybee Island mid-air collisionFeb 6 Munich air disasterFeb 27 Winter Hill disasterApr 6 Capital Airlines Flight 67Apr 21 United Airlines Flight 736May 20 Capital Airlines Flight 300May 25 Dan Air Avro YorkJun 2 Aeronaves de México Flight 111Jun 9 Aeroflot Flight 105Jun 27 Westover Air Force Base KC-135 crashAug 9 Central African Airways Flight 890Aug 14 KLM Flight 607–EAug 15 Aeroflot Flight 4Aug 15 Northeast Airlines Flight 258Sep 2 London Vickers VikingSep 2 1958 C-130 shootdown incidentSep 5 Aeroflot Flight 365Sep 7 Aeroflot Flight 164Sep 19 Lazo Il-12 crashSep 20 Syerston Avro Vulcan crashOct 17 Aeroflot Тu-104 Kanash crashOct 22 BEA Flight 142Dec 4 Aviaco LanguedocDec 24 BOAC Bristol Britannia

1957 ◄ ► 1959

v t e Aviation accidents and incidents in the Soviet Union in the 1950s
1950	Sverdlovsk Li-2 crash (January 1950) Karaganda Aeroflot Il-12 crash (July 1950)
1951	Aradan An-2 crash (April 1951) Novosibirsk Aeroflot Il-12 crash (November 1951)
1952	Habomai Islands RB-29 shootdown (October 1952)
1953	Kemerovo mid-air collision (May 1953) Aeroflot Flight 229 (June 1953) Aeroflot Flight 783 (October 1953)
1954	Aeroflot Flight 10 (September 1954) Aeroflot Flight 136 (October 1954)
1955	Aeroflot Flight 214 (August 1955)
1956	Anadyr Aeroflot Li-2 crash (December 1956)
1957	LOT Polish Airlines Flight 232 (June 1957) Kiev mid-air collision (August 1957) Aeroflot Flight 11 (October 1957) Aeroflot Flight 10 (December 1957)
1958	Aeroflot Flight 105 (June 1958) Aeroflot Flight 04 (August 1958) C-130 shootdown incident (2 September 1958) Aeroflot Flight 365 (5 September 1958) Aeroflot Flight 164 (7 September 1958) Lazo Il-12 crash (19 September 1958) Kanash Aeroflot Tu-104 crash (October 1958)
1959	Aeroflot Flight 205 (January 1959) Aeroflot Flight 200 (October 1959) Aeroflot Flight 315 (November 1959)
1922–1949 ◄ 1950–1959 ► 1960–1969

Categories:

Misplaced Pages