Aeroflot Flight 4225
Tupolev Tu-154B-2 · Microburst-induced windshear, loss of airspeed due to thermal currents causing a stall
From Almaty International Airport (ALA) to Simferopol International Airport (SIP)
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
- 166 · all aircraft and ground
- Ground fatalities
- Unknown
- Occupants
- 166
- 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
Tupolev Tu-154B-2
- Flight
- SU4225
- Aircraft type
- Tupolev TU-154
- 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
- CCCP-85355
- Operator
- Aeroflot
- Onboard fatalities
- 166
- Route
- From Almaty International Airport (ALA)To Simferopol International Airport (SIP)
Cause areas
- Environmental issues › Conditions/weather/phenomena
- Aircraft › Aircraft oper/perf/capability
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 4225 was a Tupolev Tu-154B-2 on a scheduled domestic passenger flight from Alma-Ata Airport (now Almaty) to Simferopol Airport on 8 July 1980. The aircraft had reached an altitude of no more than 500 feet when the airspeed suddenly dropped because of thermal currents it encountered during the climb out. This caused the airplane to stall less than 5 km from the airport, crash and catch fire, killing all 156 passengers and 10 crew on board. To date, it remains the deadliest aviation accident in Kazakhstan. At the time, the crash was the deadliest involving a Tupolev Tu-154 until Aeroflot Flight 3352 crashed in 1984, killing 178 people.
Accident
At the time of the accident, Alma-Ata was experiencing a heat wave. It was around 00:39 and Flight 4225 took off from Alma-Ata Airport in Soviet Kazakhstan. Only a few seconds after takeoff, the flight reached 500 ft when the plane reached a zone of hot air and was caught in a downdraft. The Tupolev stalled, plummeted nose down into a farm near the suburbs of Alma-Ata and slid into a ravine, caught fire and disintegrated, killing everyone on board instantly.
Investigation and cause
Investigation
The Soviet aviation board concluded that the crash was caused by windshear which took place while the aircraft was near its maximum takeoff weight for the local conditions which included mountains.
Text from the Wikipedia article “Aeroflot Flight 4225” (revision 1355921170, 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 4225
- Article
- Aeroflot Flight 4225
- Revision
- 1355921170 · 2026-05-24 · retrieved 2026-09-18
- Wikidata
- Q2253625
- 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 4225" (page 34421411, revision 1355921170)
- 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.