Aeroflot Flight 03
Tupolev Tu-104A · Loss of control for reasons unknown
From Vnukovo International Airport (VKO) to Yelizovo Airport (PKC)
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
- 86 · all aircraft and ground
- Ground fatalities
- Unknown
- Occupants
- 86
- 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-104A
- Aircraft type
- Tupolev TU-104
- 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-42366
- Operator
- Aeroflot
- Onboard fatalities
- 86
- Route
- From Vnukovo International Airport (VKO)To Yelizovo Airport (PKC)
Cause areas
- Not determined › Not determined
From the investigation findings the Wikipedia article reports, sorted into the NTSB's cause areas with AI assistance.
Not plotted · Not plotted: the Wikipedia article gives no coordinates, and its site names no town or airport that matches exactly.
From the Wikipedia article
Aeroflot Flight 03 was a passenger flight from Vnukovo Airport to Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky Airport via Khabarovsk Airport. On 3 September 1962, the Tupolev Tu-104 flying this route lost control after the airframe started vibrating, resulting in the plane rolling and yawing several times at an altitude of 4,500 meters before crashing. The aircraft crashed into a swamp, some 90 kilometers away from Khabarovsk. At the time, it was the deadliest crash in the history of Soviet aviation.
Investigation and cause
Cause
No official cause of the accident was discovered, but it was determined that the autopilot feature could have improved some aspects of control.
The commission responsible for investigating the accident concluded that:
The civil commission was not allowed to review materials falling under the classification "Military Secret". This has led to some theories that the aircraft could have been accidentally shot down by a surface-to-air missile launched from the Litovko military base.
Text from the Wikipedia article “Aeroflot Flight 03” (revision 1368042033, 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 03
- Article
- Aeroflot Flight 03
- Revision
- 1368042033 · 2026-08-06 · retrieved 2026-09-18
- Wikidata
- Q18398627
- 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 03" (page 40021027, revision 1368042033)
- Date
- Wikipedia infobox: date
- Place and country
- Wikipedia infobox: site; country from Wikidata (P17)
- Map position
- none
- 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.