TAROM accident near Cugir
Ilyushin Il-14P (T) · The TAROM crash near Cugir occurred on 9 October 1964 near the Romanian town of Cugir
From Timișoara Traian Vuia International Airport (TSR) to Bucharest Băneasa Aurel Vlaicu International Airport (BBU)
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
- 32 · 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-14P (T)
- 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
- YR-ILB
- Operator
- Tarom
- Onboard fatalities
- 32
- Route
- From Timișoara Traian Vuia International Airport (TSR)To Bucharest Băneasa Aurel Vlaicu International Airport (BBU)
Cause areas
- Aircraft › Aircraft structures
- Environmental issues › Conditions/weather/phenomena
- Personnel issues › Task performance
From the investigation findings the Wikipedia article reports, sorted into the NTSB's cause areas with AI assistance.
Approximate · Estimated position: Cugir, near the place the Wikipedia article names. Not the accident site.
From the Wikipedia article
The TAROM crash near Cugir occurred on 9 October 1964 near the Romanian town of Cugir. On that day, a TAROM Ilyushin Il-14P broke apart in the air and crashed to the ground. All (according to differing accounts) 31 or 32 occupants died in the incident. It was thus, until 1974, the deadliest air accident both of TAROM and in Romania.
Accident sequence
On the day of the accident, severe storms prevailed over Romania. The aircraft was operating a domestic scheduled flight from Timișoara to Bucharest-Băneasa, with takeoff taking place at 19:55. Due to the difficult weather conditions, a landing at the destination airport was not possible. Air traffic control then diverted the aircraft to Craiova Airport, where a landing was likewise not possible due to the weather. The pilots were then instructed to fly to an alternate airport in the north of Romania. On the way there, the aircraft was exposed to strong downdraughts and turbulence. As the aircraft was flying over a mountain range, radio contact was lost.
The wreckage of the aircraft was eventually found widely scattered in an area of the town of Cugir consisting of fields and forests, 55 kilometres west of Hermannstadt (Sibiu).
Investigation and cause
Cause
The large distance between the pieces of wreckage led the investigators to conclude that the aircraft had broken apart in the air. It was eventually determined that the aircraft structure had been overloaded by a downdraught and the pilots' attempt to maintain a level attitude, which is why the Ilyushin broke apart in the air.
Already in the night following the accident, captain Nicolae Matei was found guilty by two investigation commissions.
Translated into English with AI assistance from the German Wikipedia article “Flugunfall der TAROM bei Cugir” (revision 251179238, retrieved 2026-09-19) by its authors, under CC BY-SA 4.0. Extracted as plain text: references, tables, images and some sections are left out; the translation may contain errors, and long articles were cut to their first 700 words. Read the article
Sources
German Wikipedia article: Flugunfall der TAROM bei Cugir
- Translation
- Into English with AI assistance; names of linked operators and aircraft types from Wikidata. It may contain errors.
- Revision
- 251179238 · 2024-12-12 · retrieved 2026-09-19
- Wikidata
- Q20263929
- 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
- de Wikipedia article "Flugunfall der TAROM bei Cugir" (page 11922517, revision 251179238), translated into English with AI assistance
- Date
- Wikipedia infobox: date
- Place and country
- Wikipedia infobox: site
- Map position
- place the Wikipedia infobox site links (Wikidata 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 is an airline according to Wikidata
- Fatalities
- Wikipedia infobox: aircraft fatalities
- Ground fatalities
- not stated in the Wikipedia infobox
- Summary
- Wikipedia article lead
Source notes (1)
- Wikipedia · Facts from the German Wikipedia article's infobox, translated into English with AI assistance, not checked against an investigation report. Independent review pending.