Aeroflot Flight 1691
Odessa Central Airport | |
| Passengers | 113 |
|---|---|
| Crew | 6 |
| Fatalities | 58 (57 passengers, 1 crew) |
| Survivors | 61 |
Aeroflot Flight 1691 crashed near
Moscow Vnukovo Airport on 17 March 1979 killing 58 of the 119 people on board. The Tupolev Tu-104B operating the flight was overloaded and the crew received a false fire alarm.[1]
Accident sequence
Flight 1691 was due to leave for
glideslope at 360m and was 50m left of the runway centerline. The aircraft descended rapidly and 2.5 seconds before first impact, the crew moved the throttles to takeoff thrust and left them there, but this did nothing to save the aircraft. The first collision was the left main landing gear with some cables on a road near Vnukovo. The aircraft collided with the ground 1548 metres from the runway threshold. The left engine was torn from the aircraft as it rolled over and a fire broke out. 57 passengers and one stewardess were killed.[2]
Investigation
The board found that the plane was overloaded. Other factors included the lack of communication between the crew and the false fire alarm caused by a mismatch of parts in the engine.[2]