Aeroflot Flight 012 was a scheduled international passenger flight from

Beijing } Beijing ( ; ; ), alternatively romanized as Peking ( ), is the capital of the People's Republic of China. It is the center of power and development of the country. Beijing is the world's most populous national capital city, with over 21 ...

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

Moscow Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 million ...

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...

on Saturday, July 13, 1963, which crashed on landing at a scheduled stopover in

Irkutsk Irkutsk ( ; rus, Иркутск, p=ɪrˈkutsk; Buryat language, Buryat and mn, Эрхүү, ''Erhüü'', ) is the largest city and administrative center of Irkutsk Oblast, Russia. With a population of 617,473 as of the 2010 Census, Irkutsk is ...

. 33 of the 35 people on board died in the crash.

Aircraft

The aircraft involved was a

Tupolev Tupolev (russian: Ту́полев, ), officially Joint Stock Company Tupolev, is a Russian aerospace and defence company headquartered in Basmanny District, Moscow. Tupolev is successor to the Soviet Tupolev Design Bureau (OKB-156, design off ...

Tu-104B, registration СССР-42492.

Synopsis

The plane took off from Beijing around 2:49am Moscow time en route to Irkutsk at 9,000 meters. With low cloud cover over the Irkutsk airport, the crew received contradictory weather data about the low height of the cloud tops. The plane ended up descending too early. Upon exiting the cloud cover less than 60 meters from the ground, the pilots attempted to take evasive action but could not and the plane impacted terrain two miles short of the runway around 10am local time.

Casualties

33 of the 35 people on board died in the crash, including all eight crew members and 25 passengers. Two passengers survived. Among the dead were seven Albanians including the Albanian ambassador to China and poet

Drago Siliqi Drago Siliqi (9 June 1930–13 July 1963) was an Albanian poet, literary critic, and publisher. At the age of 14 he became a scout and then a partisan of the National Liberation Movement. He published his first collection of poetry, and then pu ...

, as well as three Chinese. The remains of the Albanian and Chinese victims were taken to Beijing for a major public burial attended by Premier

Zhou Enlai Zhou Enlai (; 5 March 1898 – 8 January 1976) was a Chinese statesman and military officer who served as the first Premier of the People's Republic of China, premier of the People's Republic of China from 1 October 1949 until his death on 8 J ...

. In contrast, a United States aviation periodical noted the Soviet press "virtually ignored" the crash.

References

{{authority control Aviation accidents and incidents in 1963 Aviation accidents and incidents in Russia Aviation accidents and incidents in the Soviet Union 1963 in Russia 12 Accidents and incidents involving the Tupolev Tu-104 July 1963 events in Europe 1963 in China Irkutsk