Aeroflot Flight 411
Ilyushin Il-62M · Low-altitude stall
From Sheremetyevo International Airport (SVO) to Freetown, Sierra Leone
Event
- Event typeAccident: someone killed or seriously injured, or the aircraft substantially damaged (NTSB definition). Incident: an occurrence that affected or could have affected safety, short of that. Glossary
- Accident
- Event fatalities
- 90 · all aircraft and ground
- Ground fatalities
- Unknown
- Occupants
- 90
- Survivors
- 0
- InjuriesFatal: death within 30 days. Serious: over 48 hours in hospital within a week, most broken bones, severe bleeding, nerve or organ damage, or serious burns. Minor: anything less. Glossary
- Unknown
- OperationWhat kind of flying it was, grouped by the rules it flew under: airline (US Part 121), air taxi and commuter (Part 135), general aviation (Part 91 and similar), military or government. Glossary
- Airline
Ilyushin Il-62M
- Flight
- SU411
- Aircraft type
- Ilyushin IL-62
- Category
- Airplane · from aircraft type
- RegistrationThe aircraft's tail number, such as N12345 or G-ABCD. Registrations are reissued, so the same one years apart can be a different aircraft. Glossary
- СССР-86513
- Operator
- Aeroflot
- Onboard fatalities
- 90
- Route
- From Sheremetyevo International Airport (SVO)To Freetown, Sierra Leone
Cause areas
- Aircraft › Aircraft systems
- Aircraft › Aircraft oper/perf/capability
- Organizational issues › Development
From the investigation findings the Wikipedia article reports, sorted into the NTSB's cause areas with AI assistance.
Approximate · Coordinates from the Wikipedia article; not checked against an investigation report.
From the Wikipedia article
Aeroflot Flight 411 was a scheduled flight from Sheremetyevo Airport in Moscow, Soviet Union, to Freetown, Sierra Leone, with a stopover at Dakar-Yoff International Airport in Dakar, Senegal. On 6 July 1982, the Ilyushin Il-62 flying this route crashed and was destroyed by fire after two engines were shut down shortly after take-off. All 90 passengers and crew on board died as a result of the accident.
Accident
The aircraft took off from Moscow's Sheremetyevo Airport at 12:33am with 80 passengers and 10 crew on board. Within seconds the engine fire warning for No. 1 engine was annunciated. The crew shut down the engine and discharged the engine fire extinguishers. Less than a minute later the engine fire warning for No. 2 engine was also annunciated and the crew shut this engine down as well. The crew turned the aircraft to return to Sheremetyevo Airport but after the second engine shutdown it was only at an altitude of about 160 m and a speed of 320 km/h. Despite the pilots' efforts to keep it airborne, the aircraft gradually lost height and airspeed until it stalled about 75 m above the ground. It then crashed in a forested wetland 1.5 km east of the town of Mendeleyevo and 11.4 km northwest of Sheremetyevo Airport, less than three minutes after takeoff. A passenger from Sierra Leone survived the initial accident and subsequent fire, but died on the evening of 8 July.
Investigation and cause
Investigation
Post-crash examination of the engines found no pre-crash damage or signs of in-flight fire – the fire warnings were false. The fire warning system was almost completely destroyed by the accident and fire and the reason for the false warnings could not be determined; although there had been nine reported instances of bleed air leaks causing spurious engine fire warnings on Il-62s between 1975 and the date of the accident, this was ruled out as a cause.
The investigation found that it was impossible for the aircraft to maintain altitude on two engines with its flaps set for takeoff and at its weight of 164514 kg, which was close to the maximum takeoff weight for an Il-62. It found no fault with the pilots' actions, who could not make a forced landing because of the dark and the urban areas on the ground below. The investigation found the pilots had followed flight manual procedures; however, there was no procedure in the flight manual to cover the situation in which they found themselves.
Text from the Wikipedia article “Aeroflot Flight 411” (revision 1368262727, retrieved 2026-09-18) by its authors, under CC BY-SA 4.0. Extracted as plain text: references, tables, images and some sections are left out. Read the article
Sources
Wikipedia article: Aeroflot Flight 411
- Article
- Aeroflot Flight 411
- Revision
- 1368262727 · 2026-08-08 · retrieved 2026-09-18
- Wikidata
- Q1190969
- Licence
- Text CC BY-SA 4.0, by the article's authors; Wikidata CC0; town positions GeoNames (CC BY 4.0)
Where each value comes from
- Record
- Wikipedia article "Aeroflot Flight 411" (page 15543879, revision 1368262727)
- Date
- Wikipedia infobox: date
- Place and country
- Wikipedia infobox: site
- Map position
- Wikipedia article coordinates
- Aircraft, operator and route
- Wikipedia infobox: aircraft type, registration, operator, origin and destination; route airports from the linked airport articles' Wikidata codes (OurAirports)
- Operation
- airline flight number in the infobox
- Fatalities
- Wikipedia infobox: aircraft fatalities
- Ground fatalities
- not stated in the Wikipedia infobox
- Summary
- Wikipedia infobox: summary
Source notes (1)
- Wikipedia · Facts from the Wikipedia article's infobox and coordinates, not checked against an investigation report. Independent review pending.