Balkan Bulgarian Airlines Flight 307
Ilyushin Il-18 · Atmospheric icing
From Sofia Airport (SOF) to Sheremetyevo International Airport (SVO)
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
- 25 · all aircraft and ground
- Ground fatalities
- Unknown
- Occupants
- Unknown
- 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-18
- Aircraft type
- Ilyushin IL-18
- 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
- LZ-BEM
- Operator
- Balkan Bulgarian Airlines
- Onboard fatalities
- 25
- Route
- From Sofia Airport (SOF)To Sheremetyevo International Airport (SVO)
Cause areas
- Aircraft › Fluids/misc hardware
- Personnel issues › Task performance
From the investigation findings the Wikipedia article reports, sorted into the NTSB's cause areas with AI assistance.
Approximate · Estimated position: Skhodnya, near the place the Wikipedia article names. Not the accident site.
From the Wikipedia article
Balkan Bulgarian Airlines Flight 307 was a scheduled international passenger flight from Sofia to Moscow that crashed on its final approach to the Sheremetyevo Airport in Moscow on March 3, 1973. All 25 passengers and crew on board were killed in the crash.
Accident
Flight 307 took off from Sofia-Vrazhdebna Airport at 6:13 GMT with seventeen passengers and eight crew members on board. The passengers included eight Bulgarians, six Soviets, one Vietnamese, one Japanese, and one Cuban.
At the time the instrument landing system at Sheremetyevo International Airport was not working. The crew made contact with the Sheremetyevo controller at 12:27:53 local time and was cleared for a straight-in approach to Runway 07, however a missed approach was carried out. The aircraft carried out a second approach, but while descending along the glide path, the Il-18 lost altitude, went into a nosedive, and crashed at 12:45:50 local time (9:45:50 GMT). The aircraft struck the ground 4330 m from the runway threshold. All occupants on board were killed in the accident.
Investigation and cause
Cause
The investigation conducted by the Ministry of Civil Aviation determined the probable cause to be a combination of the factors: icing of the stabilizer, a pitch maneuver to correct a deviation from the glide path, and extension of the flaps which prevented a recovery from the nosedive. The de-icing system was destroyed and could not be inspected.
Text from the Wikipedia article “Balkan Bulgarian Airlines Flight 307” (revision 1339311058, 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: Balkan Bulgarian Airlines Flight 307
- Revision
- 1339311058 · 2026-02-19 · retrieved 2026-09-18
- Wikidata
- Q4851066
- 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 "Balkan Bulgarian Airlines Flight 307" (page 29525907, revision 1339311058)
- Date
- Wikipedia infobox: date
- Place and country
- Wikipedia infobox: site
- Map position
- place the Wikipedia infobox site links (Wikidata 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
- flight number in the article title
- 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.