Aeroflot Flight 5385

On 9 July 1973, an incident occurred on a Tupolev Tu-124 on the domestic Soviet scheduled flight Aeroflot Flight 5385 from Kuibyshev to Simferopol, in which two of the 61 occupants died and the aircraft was severely damaged.

Sequence of events

The aircraft took off at 19:42 and was climbing to 6,600 m when, at 19:53, 97 to 100 km from Kuibyshev Airport, near the village of Shigony, an uncontained failure of the right engine occurred. The debris penetrated the skin, killing two passengers in the 12th row of seats and injuring four others, and causing an explosive decompression. As a result, panic broke out among the passengers in the cabin, causing them to move into the forward cabin and thereby shifting the centre of gravity forward, which made controlling the aircraft more difficult. The pilots shut down the right engine, activated its engine fire extinguishing system and initiated an emergency descent. Eventually the flight attendants and the police officer succeeded in persuading the passengers to sit down again. At 20:05 the aircraft landed at Kuibyshev Airport. On the ground, further damage was found in the area between the 37th and 38th frames, as well as to the flaps and the aileron on the right side of the aircraft.