Aeroflot Flight 6709 was a

Tupolev Tu-154B The Tupolev Tu-154 (russian: Tyполев Ту-154; NATO reporting name: "Careless") is a three-engined, medium-range, narrow-body airliner designed in the mid-1960s and manufactured by Tupolev. A workhorse of Soviet and (subsequently) Russian ...

on a

domestic Domestic may refer to: In the home * Anything relating to the human home or family ** A domestic animal, one that has undergone domestication ** A domestic appliance, or home appliance ** A domestic partnership ** Domestic science, sometimes cal ...

route from

Baku Baku (, ; az, Bakı ) is the capital and largest city of Azerbaijan, as well as the largest city on the Caspian Sea and of the Caucasus region. Baku is located below sea level, which makes it the lowest lying national capital in the world a ...

Leningrad Saint Petersburg ( rus, links=no, Санкт-Петербург, a=Ru-Sankt Peterburg Leningrad Petrograd Piter.ogg, r=Sankt-Peterburg, p=ˈsankt pʲɪtʲɪrˈburk), formerly known as Petrograd (1914–1924) and later Leningrad (1924–1991), i ...

on 19 May 1978. While cruising,

fuel starvation In an internal combustion engine, fuel starvation is the failure of the fuel system to supply sufficient fuel to allow the engine to run properly, for example due to blockage, vapor lock, contamination by water, malfunction of the fuel pump or in ...

affected the flow of fuel to the aircraft's three

Kuznetsov NK-8 The NK-8 was a low-bypass turbofan engine built by the Kuznetsov Design Bureau, in the thrust class. It powered production models of the Ilyushin Il-62 and the Tupolev Tu-154A and B models. Variants ;NK-8-2: (Tupolev Tu-154) ;NK-8-2U: (Tupol ...

engines, causing the engines to stop. This issue was possibly as a result of poor aircraft design.

Accident details

Aeroflot Flight 6709 took off from Bina International Airport at 10:30 a.m. MSK. It was bound for

Pulkovo Airport Pulkovo ( rus, links=no, Пулково, p=ˈpulkəvə) is an international airport serving St. Petersburg, Russia. It consists of one terminal which is located south of the city centre. The airport serves as a airline hub, hub for Rossiya Ai ...

in Leningrad, a distance of . Roughly two hours into the flight, the engines lost power. Some sources state that this was due to an accidental shutoff of fuel pumping to the aircraft's sump tank by the flight engineer, though the accuracy of this claim is uncertain. Due to the poor design of the Tu-154B, a single fuel pump failure could result in the stoppage of all three engines. Soon after the engines lost power, the aircraft's AC generators stopped. This resulted in an abrupt pitch and roll of the aircraft, the first sign of malfunction that the pilots noticed. During descent, the pilots tried multiple times to restart the engines. Some of these attempts worked, but did not supply enough power to the generators to restart the fuel pump. The pilots also attempted to use the aircraft's

auxiliary power unit An auxiliary power unit (APU) is a device on a vehicle that provides energy for functions other than propulsion. They are commonly found on large aircraft and naval ships as well as some large land vehicles. Aircraft APUs generally produce 115&n ...

(APU) to restart the fuel pump, but its operation was disabled by design at altitudes above . The aircraft landed in a potato and barley field southeast of

Maksatikha Maksatikha (russian: Макса́тиха) is an urban-type settlement and the administrative center of Maksatikhinsky District of Tver Oblast, Russia, with a population of It is located on the left bank of the Mologa River close to the mouth of ...

at 1:32 p.m. The aircraft bounced several times, separating into three pieces upon contact with trees. Two to three minutes after stopping, the aircraft's

fuselage The fuselage (; from the French ''fuselé'' "spindle-shaped") is an aircraft's main body section. It holds crew, passengers, or cargo. In single-engine aircraft, it will usually contain an engine as well, although in some amphibious aircraft t ...

caught fire and was destroyed. The crash and resulting fire caused 4 fatalities and 27 injuries.

References

{{Aviation accidents and incidents in Russia 1978 in the Soviet Union Accidents and incidents involving the Tupolev Tu-154 6709 Airliner accidents and incidents caused by engine failure Airliner accidents and incidents caused by fuel starvation Airliner accidents and incidents caused by pilot error Aviation accidents and incidents in 1978 Aviation accidents and incidents in the Soviet Union May 1978 events in Asia