Aeroflot Flight 207
Aeroflot (North Caucasus GVF, 77 ATO) Ilyushin Il-14M · CFIT
From Rostov-on-Don Airport to Tbilisi International Airport (TBS)
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
- 31 · 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-14M
- Aircraft type
- Ilyushin IL-14
- 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
- СССР-91571
- Onboard fatalities
- 31
- Route
- From Rostov-on-Don AirportTo Tbilisi International Airport (TBS)
Cause areas
- Personnel issues › Task performance
- Environmental issues › Operating environment
- Organizational issues › Management
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 207 was a Soviet domestic passenger flight from Rostov-on-Don Airport to Tbilisi International Airport that crashed on 10 June 1960 in the Tkvarcheli district. The crash involved an Ilyushin Il-14 aircraft operated by Aeroflot. There were 24 passengers and 7 crew on board, all of whom perished in the crash.
Accident
The crew on Flight 207 were carrying out a flight from Rostov-on-Don to Tbilisi with stopovers in Krasnodar, Sochi, Sukhumi and Kutaisi. At 10:07 Moscow time, the plane, with 24 passengers and 7 crew members on board, took off from Sochi airport. According to the weather forecast, variable stratocumulus clouds with a ceiling of 600–1000 meters and visibility more than 10 km was expected en route. At 10:31 the crew contacted the dispatch center in Sukhumi and reported entering their area of responsibility. Also, a request was made for permission to fly over without landing, since there were no passengers to disembark at Sukhumi. The dispatcher instructed them to climb to and maintain an altitude of 1200 m. At 10:45 the aircraft reported on the progress of the flight under the Visual flight rules and permission was received to make the flight without landing. After that, Flight 207 did not contact the dispatcher in Sukhumi.
At 10:55, the crew tried to contact the dispatcher at the Kutaisi airport. During the call the transmission was unexpectedly interrupted. At the same time, the Il-14, flying in the clouds at an altitude of 1200 m, 51 kmeast of Sukhumi airport and 17 km north of the prescribed route, crashed into the cloud-covered mountain of Rech (altitude 1436 m), near Tkvarcheli. After the initial impact with trees, the plane broke in two and after 80 m, the fuselage fell down a mountain slope. The completely destroyed and burned out plane was found the next day. All the people on board had been killed.
Investigation and cause
Cause
During the investigation, it was established that Flights 207 and 208 (return) were being performed by the North Caucasus Directorate for the first time, and that the tasking for 77 squadron had been issued 10 days earlier. However, the crew had been assembled in a hurry, and only a day before the flight, on 9 June, there was no flight mechanic or radio operator during training. Although the flight route was considered difficult, the crew had not flown it, and also did not include a navigator. In addition, the crew commander Samus did not have permission to work independently on passenger flights, so the instructor pilot who had returned from vacation on 7 June, that is, 3 days before the flight, was included in the crew. Poorly guided during the flight, as well as not knowing and underestimating the meteorological situation, the crew as a result deviated north of the route. In turn, the Sukhumi dispatchers did not control the flight of Flight 207 on radar and did not carry out continuous radio communication with it. Having flown 100 kilometers within 20 minutes, the crew did not receive a single location message or information on what course it was flying. It was also established that the flights on this route were carried out according to outdated instructions, which in many respects contradicted the existing instructions for the planning of flights (NPP-GA-58).
According to the commission, the causes of the incident were:
The pilot-in-command did not take the control bearing and did not require the Sukhumi dispatcher to report actual weather and location of the aircraft, instead ceasing radio contact with Sukhumi.
The flight manager, having information about the weather, did not transmit it to the crew, and also did not ensure that his shift would control the flight.
The flight controller supervised the flight only on communication from the crew.
The radio duties were performed by an intern, although they should not have been allowed to work independently; they did not conduct continuous monitoring of the flight.
Text from the Wikipedia article “Aeroflot Flight 207” (revision 1367967538, 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 207
- Article
- Aeroflot Flight 207
- Revision
- 1367967538 · 2026-08-06 · retrieved 2026-09-18
- Wikidata
- Q17494984
- 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 207" (page 59362740, revision 1367967538)
- 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
- 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.