Aeroflot Flight 5463

Aeroflot Flight 5463 was a Soviet domestic passenger flight from Chelyabinsk to Almaty which crashed on 30 August 1983 while approaching Almaty. The Tupolev Tu-134A collided with the western slope of Dolan Mountain at an altitude of 690 m. As a result of the accident, all ninety people on board were killed. Crew error was cited as the cause of the accident.

Accident

Having received the information about the aircraft's location, air traffic control (ATC) gave an erroneous instruction to turn. The crew also mistakenly chose a heading of 199 degrees instead of 140. ATC subsequently gave the proper heading, but instructed the crew to descend to 600 m, whereas the minimum safe altitude for the surrounding terrain was 4620 m. Knowing that the aircraft was on collision course with mountainous terrain and having the right to ignore the ATC in this situation, according to the Soviet flight regulations, the crew chose to make a turn instead, continuing their descent to 600 m. Having informed ATC of their situation, the crew received a ground proximity warning. Instead of making an urgent climb, the crew delayed any attempt to climb until 1–2 seconds before impact.

The aircraft crashed into Dolan Mountain, at an altitude of 690 m, 30 km from Almaty airport, disintegrating and catching fire. At the time of the accident, there was cumulo-nimbus cloud cover at an altitude of 3000 - 4500 m with cloud tops of 7000 - 8000 m and a visibility of 10 km.