Aeroflot Flight 330

Aeroflot Flight 330 (flight number: SU330) was a regional scheduled Aeroflot flight from Nurata to Samarkand with an intermediate stop at the Kommunizm sovkhoz in the Uzbek Soviet Socialist Republic. On 14 January 1966 this flight was operated with an Antonov An-2, which collided with a mountain during the flight. All 11 people on board were killed in the accident.

Flight sequence

After another outbound and return flight had already been operated with the aircraft that day and it had arrived at Samarkand Airport at 11:20, the pilots took off at 12:14 to operate flights 329 and 330. On the outbound flight, a first intermediate landing was made at the Kommunizm sovkhoz at 12:55. Three minutes later the aircraft took off to continue the flight, and at 13:08 a further intermediate landing followed at the Kyzylcha sovkhoz. At 13:13 the aircraft took off again and arrived in Nurata at 13:29. The return flight with flight number 330 began 19 minutes later. On it, an intermediate landing was to be made only at the Kommunizm sovkhoz. Before departure, the captain received an instruction from air traffic control to fly an alternative route via Konimex because of difficult weather conditions along the route. The captain expressed dissatisfaction with this instruction, since he still had children to look after at home (his wife was in hospital), and he hoped to be able to complete the flight as quickly as possible. After takeoff from Nurata Airport at 13:48, the captain asked the flight information service about the reason for the route change, whereupon he received the answer from the flight director that the decision had been made because of difficult weather conditions along the main route. The intermediate landing at the Kommunizm sovkhoz took place at 14:17; there four passengers disembarked, while five others boarded. At 14:20 the crew took off towards Samarkand with nine passengers on board.

The crew did not receive a weather forecast for the diversion route to be flown. The flight from the Kommunizm sovkhoz to Nurata took place in favourable weather conditions at an altitude of 1500 metres. At 14:48 the crew reported their flight altitude to air traffic control in Samarkand and gave 15:03 as their estimated time of arrival. This was the last outgoing radio message. As the crew continued the flight, they encountered weather conditions below the specified weather minima, characterised by low-hanging clouds and heavy rain. The captain made no decision to turn back, as a result of which the aircraft got ever deeper into a front with extraordinarily difficult weather conditions. The captain deviated eastwards from the flight route, hoping thereby to reach a zone with more favourable weather conditions. In doing so he flew along the Nuratau mountains. He then turned the aircraft to the left in an easterly direction and, in precipitation and with restricted visibility, followed the length of the mountain ridge, whose maximum height was 1100 metres. Owing to downdraughts from a southwesterly direction, the aircraft lost height. At 15:07 local time it collided with a mountainside 12 kilometres from the intended flight route at an absolute altitude of 930 metres, 3.4 kilometres from the village of Shamurat. The fuselage collapsed completely along frame 18, and all persons on board were killed.