1986 Mozambican Tupolev Tu-134 crash
Mozambique Airlines Tupolev Tu-134A-3 · Controlled flight into terrain due to lack of crew resource management and pilot error
From Maputo Airport (MPM) to Maputo International Airport, Mozambique
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
- 34 · all aircraft and ground
- Ground fatalities
- Unknown
- Occupants
- 44
- Survivors
- 10
- 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
- 10
- 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-134A-3
- Aircraft type
- Tupolev TU-134
- 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
- C9-CAA
- Operator
- Mozambique Airlines
- Onboard fatalities
- 34
- Route
- From Maputo Airport (MPM)To Maputo International Airport, Mozambique
Approximate · Coordinates from the Wikipedia article; not checked against an investigation report.
From the Wikipedia article
On 19 October 1986, a Tupolev Tu-134 jetliner with a Soviet crew carrying President Samora Machel and 43 others from Mbala, Zambia to the Mozambican capital Maputo crashed at Mbuzini, South Africa. Nine passengers and one crew member survived the crash, but President Machel and 33 others died, including several ministers and senior officials of the Mozambican government.
A board of inquiry blamed the captain for failing to react to the ground proximity warning system. Another theory was that the crew had set the aircraft's VOR receivers to the wrong frequency, causing them to receive signals from a different airport, or even that a false beacon had been used to lure the crew off course. While there was widespread suspicion in other nations that South Africa, which was hostile towards Machel's government at the time, was involved in the incident, no conclusive evidence was ever presented to support that allegation.
Text from the Wikipedia article “1986 Mozambican Tupolev Tu-134 crash” (revision 1370524548, 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: 1986 Mozambican Tupolev Tu-134 crash
- Revision
- 1370524548 · 2026-08-21 · retrieved 2026-09-18
- Wikidata
- Q950273
- 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 "1986 Mozambican Tupolev Tu-134 crash" (page 7631057, revision 1370524548)
- 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
- operator named as an airline 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.