Interflug Flight 1107 was a flight operated by East German airline

Interflug Interflug GmbH (german: Interflug Gesellschaft für internationalen Flugverkehr m.b.H.; ) was the national airline of the German Democratic Republic from 1963 to 1990. Based in East Berlin, it operated scheduled and chartered flights to European ...

from

Stuttgart Stuttgart (; Swabian: ; ) is the capital and largest city of the German state of Baden-Württemberg. It is located on the Neckar river in a fertile valley known as the ''Stuttgarter Kessel'' (Stuttgart Cauldron) and lies an hour from the ...

West Germany West Germany is the colloquial term used to indicate the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG; german: Bundesrepublik Deutschland , BRD) between its formation on 23 May 1949 and the German reunification through the accession of East Germany on 3 O ...

Leipzig Leipzig ( , ; Upper Saxon: ) is the most populous city in the German state of Saxony. Leipzig's population of 605,407 inhabitants (1.1 million in the larger urban zone) as of 2021 places the city as Germany's eighth most populous, as wel ...

East Germany East Germany, officially the German Democratic Republic (GDR; german: Deutsche Demokratische Republik, , DDR, ), was a country that existed from its creation on 7 October 1949 until its dissolution on 3 October 1990. In these years the state ...

. On 1 September 1975 a Tupolev Tu-134 operating on the route crashed during its approach to Leipzig, killing 27 of the 34 passengers and crew on board.

Accident

The aircraft descended with guidance from

air traffic control Air traffic control (ATC) is a service provided by ground-based air traffic controllers who direct aircraft on the ground and through a given section of controlled airspace, and can provide advisory services to aircraft in non-controlled airs ...

using a

precision approach radar Precision approach radar (PAR) is a type of radar guidance system designed to provide lateral and vertical guidance to an aircraft pilot for landing, until the landing threshold is reached. Controllers monitoring the PAR displays observe each airc ...

. Despite this the crew allowed the aircraft to descend too quickly and failed to check what was the

decision height In aviation, an instrument approach or instrument approach procedure (IAP) is a series of predetermined maneuvers for the orderly transfer of an aircraft operating under instrument flight rules from the beginning of the initial approach to a landi ...

for Leipzig Airport. The Tu-134 struck a radio mast only two to three metres above its base and crashed. Three of the six crew and 24 of the 28 passengers were killed in the crash. The majority of the passengers were travelling to visit the

Leipzig Trade Fair The Leipzig Trade Fair (german: Leipziger Messe) is a major trade fair, which traces its roots back for nearly a millennium. After the Second World War, Leipzig fell within the territory of East Germany, whereupon the Leipzig Trade Fair became o ...

. The surviving crewmembers and the radar controller were all sentenced to prison terms as a result of the crash.

References

{{aviation accidents and incidents in 1975 Accidents and incidents involving the Tupolev Tu-134 Aviation accidents and incidents in Germany Airliner accidents and incidents involving controlled flight into terrain Aviation accidents and incidents in 1975 1975 in East Germany East Germany–West Germany relations Interflug accidents and incidents 20th century in Saxony September 1975 events in Europe