The 1978 Balkan Bulgarian Tupolev Tu-134 crash was an

accident An accident is an unintended, normally unwanted event that was not directly caused by humans. The term ''accident'' implies that nobody should be blamed, but the event may have been caused by unrecognized or unaddressed risks. Most researcher ...

that occurred on 16 March 1978, when a

Balkan Bulgarian Airlines Balkan Bulgarian Airlines ( bg, Балкан) was Bulgaria's government-owned flag carrier airline between 1947 and 2002. During the 1970s, the airline became a significant European carrier. The company encountered financial instability followi ...

Tupolev Tu-134 The Tupolev Tu-134 (NATO reporting name: Crusty) is a twin-engined, narrow-body jet airliner built in the Soviet Union for short and medium-haul routes from 1966 to 1989. The original version featured a glazed-nose design and, like certain ot ...

airliner on an international flight from

Sofia Airport Sofia Airport ( bg, Летище София, translit=Letishte Sofiya) is the main international airport of Bulgaria, located east of the centre of the capital Sofia. In 2019 the airport surpassed 7 million passengers for the first time. The ai ...

to Warsaw Airport crashed. All passengers and crew died in the crash. As of 2023, it remains the deadliest accident in Bulgarian aviation history. The exact cause of the crash remains unknown.

Aircraft

The aircraft

, tail number LZ-TUB, was produced in 1968 by the Kharkiv State Aircraft Manufacturing Company. It belonged to

, and had 72 passenger seats and room for seven crew. The flight in question was piloted by Captain Hristo Hristov.

Accident

On departure from Sofia, the aircraft(LZ 107) began to climb to but at , it turned on a

heading Heading can refer to: * Heading (metalworking), a process which incorporates the extruding and upsetting processes * Headline, text at the top of a newspaper article * Heading (navigation), the direction a person or vehicle is facing, usually s ...

of 050 degrees. It turned again to 270 degrees before it began an abnormal descent. The aircraft crashed 10 minutes from takeoff near the village of Gabare, close to

Byala Slatina Byala Slatina ( bg, Бяла Слатина ) is a town in Northwestern Bulgaria. It is located in Vratsa Province Vratsa Province ( bg, Област Враца ''Oblast Vraca'', former name Vraca okrug) is a Bulgarian province located in th ...

, 130 km northeast of Sofia, killing all 73 people on board. At the time of the crash, the aircraft was flying at a speed of with almost full fuel tanks, containing 11 tons of fuel. The nature of the emergency and whether the aircraft was under control at the moment of impact were never established. After the crash, the

Bulgarian Army The Bulgarian Land Forces ( bg, Сухопътни войски на България, Sukhopŭtni voĭski na Bŭlgariya, lit=Ground Forces of Bulgaria) are the ground warfare branch of the Bulgarian Armed Forces. The Land Forces were established ...

quickly arrived at the scene, and sealed it off. The investigation performed afterwards was superficial. The official cause given by the Bulgarian authorities was a "malfunction of electrical installation". The accident was quickly forgotten, with no further investigations being conducted. The haste with which the disaster was "forgotten" and the superficial investigation that was carried out raised doubts. This sparked speculation as to the real cause of the crash. One version of the event claimed that the Tu-134 collided with a

MiG-21 The Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-21 (russian: Микоян и Гуревич МиГ-21; NATO reporting name: Fishbed) is a supersonic jet fighter and interceptor aircraft, designed by the Mikoyan-Gurevich Design Bureau in the Soviet Union. Its nickna ...

of the

Bulgarian Air Force The Bulgarian Air Force ( bg, Военновъздушни сили, Voennovazdushni sili) is one of the three branches of the Military of Bulgaria, the other two being the Bulgarian Navy and Bulgarian land forces. Its mission is to guard and p ...

. Another version assumed that the aircraft was shot down mistakenly by the Bulgarian

anti-aircraft defense Anti-aircraft warfare, counter-air or air defence forces is the battlespace response to aerial warfare, defined by NATO as "all measures designed to nullify or reduce the effectiveness of hostile air action".AAP-6 It includes surface based, ...

system. These claims are driven by the fact that there was a

Warsaw Pact The Warsaw Pact (WP) or Treaty of Warsaw, formally the Treaty of Friendship, Cooperation and Mutual Assistance, was a collective defense treaty signed in Warsaw, Poland, between the Soviet Union and seven other Eastern Bloc socialist republic ...

military base in the area.

Victims

The victims of the crash were 37 Polish passengers, 27 Bulgarian passengers, two British passengers and seven crew members. Among the victims were members of the Polish national

track cycling Track cycling is a bicycle racing sport usually held on specially built banked tracks or velodromes using purpose-designed track bicycles. History Track cycling has been around since at least 1870. When track cycling was in its infancy, it wa ...

team (Tadeusz Włodarczyk, Witold Stachowiak, Marek Kolasa, Krzysztof Otocki and Jacek Zdaniuk) and members of the Bulgarian national

rhythmic gymnastics Rhythmic gymnastics is a sport in which gymnasts perform on a floor with an apparatus: hoop, ball, clubs, ribbon. The sport combines elements of gymnastics, dance and calisthenics; gymnasts must be strong, flexible, agile, dexterous and coord ...

team (Valentina Kirilova, Snezhana Mikhailova, Albena Petrova, Sevdalina Popova and Rumiana Stefanova with their coach Julieta Shishmanova). Other victims included the Polish Vice-Minister of Culture and Bulgarian footballer

Georgi Dimitrov Georgi Dimitrov Mihaylov (; bg, Гео̀рги Димитро̀в Миха̀йлов), also known as Georgiy Mihaylovich Dimitrov (russian: Гео́ргий Миха́йлович Дими́тров; 18 June 1882 – 2 July 1949), was a Bulgarian ...

Commemoration

A marble monument located in a gorge near the village of Gabare commemorates the accident and its victims. It is placed in hard-to-reach terrain and no path leads towards it. In 2016, on the initiative of

Leszek Sibilski Leszek Jan Sibilski (born April 1, 1958) is a Polish-American sociologist, track cyclist, and originator of the World Bicycle Day. Education and professional career Leszek Sibilski graduated from Education and Sport Science at the Academy ...

and , a memorial plaque was unveiled at the velodrome

Arena Pruszków The Arena Pruszków, known until 2017 as BGŻ BNP Paribas Arena for sponsorship reasons, is a velodrome in Pruszków, Poland. Opened in 2008 as Poland's first indoor velodrome, it hosted the 2009 UCI Track Cycling World Championships. It also h ...

Pruszków Pruszków ( yi, ‏פּרושקאָוו) is a city in east-central Poland, situated in the Masovian Voivodeship since 1999. It was previously in Warszawa Voivodeship (1975–1998). Pruszków is the capital of Pruszków County, located along t ...

, Poland. It reads "The living owe it to those who can no longer speak to tell their story."

References

*UK CAA Document CAA 429 World Airline Accident Summary (ICAO Summary 4/80)

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Balkan Bulgarian Tupolev Tu-134 Crash Aviation accidents and incidents in 1978 Accidents and incidents involving the Tupolev Tu-134 Aviation accidents and incidents in Bulgaria Airliner accidents and incidents with an unknown cause Balkan Bulgarian Airlines accidents and incidents 1978 in Bulgaria March 1978 events in Europe 1978 disasters in Bulgaria