Aeroflot Flight 7425


Aeroflot Flight 7425 was a domestic scheduled Karshi–Ufa–Leningrad passenger flight that crashed near Uchkuduk, Uzbek SSR, Soviet Union on 10 July 1985. The crash killed all 200 occupants on board. Investigators determined that crew fatigue was a factor in the accident.

Passengers and Crew

Flight 7425 was serviced by a Tupolev Tu-154B-2, registration CCCP-85311. Led by pilot-in-command Oleg Pavlovich Belisov, the cockpit crew consisted of co-pilot Anatoly Timofeevich Pozyumsky, navigator Garry Nikolaevich Argeev, and flight engineer Abduvahit Sultanovich Mansurov. There were five flight attendants in the cabin.

Accident

The aircraft was operating the first leg of the flight, and cruising at with an airspeed of, close to stalling speed for that altitude. The low speed caused vibrations, which the aircrew incorrectly assumed were engine surges. Using the thrust levers to reduce engine power to flight idle, the crew caused a further drop in airspeed to. The aircraft stalled and entered a flat spin, crashing into the ground near Uchkuduk, Uzbekistan, at that time in the Soviet Union. There were no survivors.
Flight 7425 remains the deadliest air disaster in Soviet and Uzbek aviation history, the deadliest in Aeroflot's history, and the deadliest accident involving a Tupolev Tu-154.

Cause

Flight 7425's cockpit voice recorder was destroyed in the crash. Investigators, with the help of psychologists, studied the human factors that led to the incident. They found Flight 7425's flight crew were very fatigued at the time of the crash from having spent the prior 24 hours at the departure airport prior to takeoff. Another factor was inadequate regulations for crews encountering abnormal conditions.