Aeroflot Flight 811

Aeroflot Flight 811 was a scheduled Soviet domestic passenger flight from Komsomolsk-on-Amur to Blagoveshchensk that collided mid-air on 24 August 1981 with a Tupolev Tu-16K strategic bomber over Zavitinsky District in Amur Oblast, Russian SFSR, Soviet Union (now Russia). The collision between Aeroflot's Antonov An-24RV and the Tupolev Tu-16K occurred at an altitude of 5220 m, killing 37 people on both aircraft. The sole survivor, 20-year-old passenger Larisa Savitskaya, who had been aboard Flight 811, was rescued on the third day after the accident.

Background and collision

The Antonov An-24RV departed from Komsomolsk-on-Amur at 14:56 local time, after a four-hour delay due to weather conditions. The crew consisted of first pilot Alexander Mirgorodsky, co-pilot Valery Shevelev, navigating officer Fedosy Kryzhanovsky, flight engineer Nikolai Dimitriyev and flight attendant Galina Borisova. Among the passengers was one child. Larisa Savitskaya and her husband Vladimir were returning from their honeymoon.

The flight dispatcher was informed that military aircraft would traverse the local airspace at altitudes of 4200 - 4500 m. On the same day, at 16:00 and 16:01 local time two Tupolev Tu-16Ks left Zavitinsk air base for weather reconnaissance. At 16:21, one of them (serial number 6203106) collided with the Aeroflot An-24, 70 km east of the air base. The collision occurred in good lighting conditions, with visibility of over 10 km. Savitskaya was sound asleep at that moment. The Tu-16K tore off the An-24's roof and severed both wings. The temperature inside An-24's cabin dropped from 25 to -30 °C. Both aircraft disintegrated and fell on the taiga. The fragments of the An-24 were scattered in a south-western direction, 1020 m from the collision point, over an area of 2500 by 900 m. The Tu-16K exploded after hitting the ground, and its fragments were scattered approximately 2000 m from the collision point.

Savitskaya was conscious during the fall, which lasted eight minutes. She survived partly because the 4 by 3 m aircraft fragment she was in started to glide and landed on a soft, swampy glade. She also pushed against the seat with her hands and feet, "perhaps hoping to absorb the blow" in her own words. The impact with the ground, however, knocked her temporarily unconscious. She sustained a concussion, a broken arm and rib and some spinal injuries.