Aeroflot Flight 699

Aeroflot

Industry	Airline
Founded	1923
Headquarters	Moscow , Soviet Union

Aeroflot Flight 699 was a scheduled service operated by a Tupolev Tu-154B, registration CCCP-85254, flying from Moscow Domodedovo Airport to Krasnovodsk Airport (currently known as Türkmenbaşy International Airport). The aircraft crashed during its final approach to the destination.

Accident

During the landing phase, the plane experienced an excessively hard touchdown and subsequently disintegrated. This occurred due to an inadequately performed approach executed by a co-pilot with limited experience.

Aircraft

The aircraft involved was a Tupolev Tu-154B-1 under the operation of Aeroflot, bearing the registration CCCP-85254 (manufacturer serial number 78A254). It first took flight in 1977 and had accumulated 15,859 flight hours over 8,082 cycles.

Investigation

Examination revealed that the airplane was mechanically sound at the time of impact, with no major defects detected. Attention focused on the flight crew, who demonstrated significant deficiencies in crew resource management and lacked sufficient proficiency for the demanding approach. The Pilot in Command permitted the inexperienced co-pilot to conduct the approach without adequate oversight, leading to an unstable descent and an extremely hard landing estimated at 4.8g. This caused the tail section to detach, resulting in 11 passengers being ejected from the fuselage and losing their lives.

Causes

The investigation concluded that the main factor contributing to the accident was inadequate crew resource management by the Pilot in Command, who did not provide proper supervision to the less experienced pilot controlling the aircraft.

Summary

The flight ended tragically after an improperly managed approach led to a severe landing impact and structural breakup of the aircraft, causing the deaths of 11 passengers.