Tu-104 accident in Chita
Irkutsk United Air Detachment, East Siberian Civil Aviation Directorate Tupolev Tu-104 · Aircraft overloading, errors by the crew and air traffic controller
From Kadala, Chita (RSFSR, USSR) to Domodedovo, Moscow (RSFSR, USSR)
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
- Occurrence
- Event fatalities
- 0 · all aircraft and ground
- Ground fatalities
- Unknown
- Occupants
- Unknown
- Survivors
- 117
- 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
- 5
- 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-104
- Aircraft type
- Tupolev TU-104
- 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
- CCCP-42335
- Onboard fatalities
- 0
- Route
- From Kadala, Chita (RSFSR, USSR)To Domodedovo, Moscow (RSFSR, USSR)
Cause areas
- Personnel issues › Action/decision
- Aircraft › Aircraft oper/perf/capability
- Organizational issues › Support/oversight/monitoring
From the investigation findings the Wikipedia article reports, sorted into the NTSB's cause areas with AI assistance.
Not plotted · Not plotted: the Wikipedia article gives no coordinates, and its site names no town or airport that matches exactly.
From the Wikipedia article
The Tu-104 accident in Chita was an aviation accident that occurred on 17 July 1976 near Chita's Kadala Airport. A Tu-104A airliner of the Irkutsk Joint Aviation Detachment of the airline Aeroflot was operating a scheduled domestic flight on the route Chita — Novosibirsk — Moscow, but during take-off at Chita's Kadala Airport the aircraft overran the runway, crashed into a railway embankment, fell to the ground and broke up. None of the 117 people — 110 passengers and 7 crew members — were killed; 5 people were injured.
According to the results of the investigation, the cause of the incident was the overloading of the aircraft, though the centre of gravity did not exceed the permissible limits; the erroneous actions of the crew with a centre of gravity above the permissible and the errors of the air traffic controller also played a role.
Sequence of events
Tu-104A USSR-42335 was operating a scheduled flight from Chita to Moscow with intermediate stops in Novosibirsk and Chelyabinsk. The take-off in Chita was performed in the daytime on a magnetic heading of 286° from runway No. 29, with the flaps extended to 17°. During the take-off run the aircraft did not lift off the runway (lift-off occurred at the end of the runway), struck the stopway (KPB), flew 322 metres and crashed into a railway embankment with its main landing gear legs, bounced into the air and crashed to the ground, breaking up and catching fire. 5 people were injured (1 flight attendant and 4 passengers); the remaining 112 people (6 crew members and 106 passengers) were not injured.
Investigation and cause
Investigation
The cause of the aircraft accident was the crew's violation of the requirements of the flight manual (ch. 1, sec. 4, para. 2,4,5,6, ch. 2, sec. 3, para.1) and of NPP GA-71 (paras. 2.5.2, 2.5.4, 7.2.2, 2.5.5, 2.5.7, 2.5.8, 4.4.9), expressed in the incorrect decision to depart and in performing the take-off with an aircraft weight exceeding the permissible for the actual weather conditions.
The flight incident was contributed to by unsatisfactory supervision of the crew's preparation for the flight by the duty navigator and the controller of the air traffic services office (ADP) of Chita airport.
During pre-flight preparation the crew committed a number of gross violations of the requirements of the documents governing flight operations. Ignoring the actual weather conditions, which did not allow a safe take-off at the stated flight weight, the crew decided to perform the flight, endangering the lives of the passengers.
The duty navigator and the ADP controller, knowing about the violations committed by the crew, did not perform their direct official duties and did not prevent the flight incident.
Translated into English with AI assistance from the Russian Wikipedia article “Авария Ту-104 в Чите” (revision 152758856, 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
Russian Wikipedia article: Авария Ту-104 в Чите
- Article
- Авария Ту-104 в Чите
- Translation
- Into English with AI assistance; names of linked operators and aircraft types from Wikidata. It may contain errors.
- Revision
- 152758856 · 2026-04-17 · retrieved 2026-09-19
- 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
- ru Wikipedia article "Авария Ту-104 в Чите" (page 10864303, revision 152758856), translated into English with AI assistance
- Date
- Wikipedia infobox: date
- Place and country
- Wikipedia infobox: site
- Map position
- none
- Aircraft, operator and route
- Wikipedia infobox: aircraft type, registration, operator, origin and destination; route airports from the linked airport articles' Wikidata codes (OurAirports)
- Operation
- "scheduled domestic flight" in the article's opening paragraph
- Fatalities
- Wikipedia infobox: aircraft fatalities
- Ground fatalities
- not stated in the Wikipedia infobox
- Summary
- Wikipedia infobox: summary
Source notes (1)
- Wikipedia · Facts from the Russian Wikipedia article's infobox, translated into English with AI assistance, not checked against an investigation report. Independent review pending.