Aeroflot Flight 3519

Aeroflot Flight 3519 was a Tupolev Tu-154B-2 airline flight on a domestic route from Krasnoyarsk to Irkutsk on December 23, 1984. Shortly after takeoff, the No. 3 engine caught fire, and the airplane crashed during an emergency landing. 110 people were killed, and there was one survivor.^[1] The aircraft was destroyed in the crash.^[2]

The crash is the twelfth-worst accident among Tupolev 154s and the ninth-worst accident in Russian aviation history.^[2]

Accident details

On December 23, 1984, at 2:08 pm MSK (UTC/GMT + 7 hours),^[3] Aeroflot Flight 3519 took off from Krasnoyarsk Airport for Irkutsk Airport, a distance of approximately 879 kilometres (546 mi).^[2] The weather was clear with a high visibility. The aircraft then made a turn and climbed to an altitude of 1,500 metres (4,900 ft). Ground communication cleared the aircraft for a climb to an altitude of 5,700 metres (18,700 ft). Two minutes and one second into the flight, at a speed of 480 kilometres per hour (300 mph)^[3] and an altitude of 2,040 metres (6,690 ft), the No. 3 engine failed and caught fire. This was due to a metallurgical and manufacturing defect in the first stage low pressure compressor disk. The flight engineer mistakenly shut down the No. 2 engine; ten seconds later, he realized his error and attempted to restart the No. 2 engine. The crew then began to turn the aircraft around for an emergency landing. The No. 3 engine was shut off and the crew unsuccessfully fired extinguishing bottles. Without warning, the No. 2 engine began turning at takeoff speed and could not be controlled by the engine power levers. The crew was able to shut off the No. 2 engine, but the fuel valve remained open. By that time, the fire from the No. 3 engine had spread to the pylon and the auxiliary power unit in the rear compartment and continued to spread to the No. 2 engine. The fire caused substantial damage to the aircraft's electrical system, causing the voltage to drop and the hydraulics to fail.^[2]

When Flight 3519 passed the outer marker of the runway of Krasnoyarsk Airport, it was flying at a speed of 420 kilometres per hour (260 mph) at an altitude of 175 metres (574 ft), and was descending at a rate of 10 metres per second (33 ft/s). Due to the extensive fire damage that left the aircraft with only one functional engine, the crew was unable to control the plane. The aircraft banked to the right and crashed into the runway at 2:15 pm at a 50 degree angle. The time between the start of the fire and the crash was four minutes and 30 seconds.^[2] The only survivor was one passenger, a 27-year-old man, who was badly injured. The other 103 people aboard the aircraft were killed. The aircraft was destroyed and partially burned in the crash.^[3]

Technical data and statistics

Aeroflot Flight 3519's initial flight was in 1979.^[2]

At the time of takeoff and the crash, the weather was calm, with visibility at more than 3,500 metres (11,500 ft), very few clouds, and a temperature of −18 °C (0 °F). The weather did not have a role in the crash.^[3]

Of the 104 passengers aboard, five were children.^[3] There were seven crew members. 110 of those aboard–all of the crew and 103 passengers–were killed in the crash. No ground injuries or casualties were reported.^[2]

At the time, the accident was the third-worst accident in Tupolev 154 history and the fifth-worst accident in Russian aviation history. It is now the twelfth-worst accident and the nineteenth-costliest in Tupolev 154 history and the ninth-worst accident in Russian aviation history.^[2]

See also

• List of sole survivors of airline accidents or incidents

References