Aeroflot Flight 331

Aeroflot Flight 331
	The aircraft involved in the accident
Accident
Date	27 May 1977
Summary	Controlled flight into terrain, pilot error aggravated by bad weather
Site	Off José Martí International Airport ; 22°59′21″N 82°24′33″W
Aircraft
Aircraft type	Ilyushin Il-62M
Operator	Aeroflot
Registration	СССР-86614
Flight origin	Sheremetyevo International Airport
1st stopover	Frankfurt Airport
Last stopover	Lisbon Airport
Destination	José Martí International Airport
Occupants	70
Passengers	60
Crew	10
Fatalities	68
Injuries	2
Survivors	2

Aeroflot Flight 331 was an international passenger flight] operated by an Ilyushin Il-62M that crashed approximately 1 km (0.62 mi) from José Martí International Airport, in Havana, Cuba, on 27 May 1977. The accident occurred after the aircraft hit power lines on its final approach to the airport during poor weather.[1][2] The aircraft was attempting an emergency landing due to a fire in one of its engines.[2][3] Only two of the 70 occupants on board survived.[1][4]

The cause of the crash was ruled to be pilot error.[4]

Aircraft

The aircraft involved was an Ilyushin Il-62M, registered as CCCP-86614 and operated by the International Civil Aviation Directorate of Aeroflot. At the time of the accident, the aircraft had 5,549 hours of flight and 1,144 use cycles. The aircraft was delivered to Aeroflot in 1975.[1]

Passengers and crew

At a stopover in Lisbon, Portugal, a new crew took command of the aircraft. The five-man crew consisted of Captain Viktor Orlov, co-pilot Vasily Shevelev, navigator Anatoly Vorobyov, flight engineer Yuri Suslov, and radio operator Evgeniy Pankov. There were five flight attendants on the aircraft.

Nationality	Passengers	Crew	Total
Soviet Union	28	10	38
United Kingdom	12	0	12
Cuba	8	0	8
Sweden	3	0	3
Australia	2	0	2
Guinea-Bissau	2	0	2
West Germany	2	0	2
Mexico	1	0	1
Netherlands	1	0	1
Total	59	10	69[5][4]

Sequence of events

At 03:32 UTC, Flight 331 took off from Lisbon Airport and climbed to 35,000 feet (10,670 m). While on approach to Havana, the crew reported seeing false altitude and air pressure readings. They were then granted permission to descend from 35,000 to 15,000 feet, followed by a descent to 3,000 feet. At the time, cumulus clouds were present, visibility was 8 kilometers with a dense fog at 40 m, air pressure was 758mm Hg (or 0.99737 atm), and the temperature was 21° C.[4][5] At 8:45:28 (12:45:28 UTC) local time, still 1,270 m from the runway, the crew spotted four power lines 28 m high, and attempted to avoid them by pitching the nose up. However, at 23–25 m they clipped all four lines, slicing the stabilizer and severing the right outboard wing flaps. The damage caused the aircraft to making a sharp 70° bank to the right over the next three seconds. The aircraft then struck the ground with its right wing and nose and caught fire, destroying it. Only the tail section remained.[4]

The only two survivors of the crash were a West German woman and a Soviet man.[3] One of the victims was José Carlos Schwarz, a poet and musician from Guinea-Bissau.[6]

Investigation

An investigation revealed serious errors made by the crew in the last moments of the flight. The main cause of the accident was a blatant violation of approach procedure, errors in calculating altitude that resulted in incorrect altitude readings that led to a premature descent, and the crew's attempt at a visual approach in dense fog. Also cited was the incorrect use of the radio altimeter by the crew.[4]

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References

Accident description for CCCP-86614 at the Aviation Safety Network. Retrieved on 3 September 2011.
"Airline accidents". Flight International: 1689. 11 June 1977. Archived from the original on 28 March 2013. It is reported that the aircraft struck a power line while attempting an emergency landing in fog.
"Soviet Jet Crashes; 66 Die". Nashua Telegraph. Mexico City. Associated Press. 28 May 1977. p. 1.
Катастрофа Ил-62М ЦУ МВС близ Гаваны (Куба) [Accident Il-62M Havana] (in Russian). airdisaster.ru. Retrieved 7 August 2012.
"Plane crash IL-62M near Havana (Cuba). 1977". en.avia.pro. Retrieved 7 January 2017.
Anne Summers and David Marr, "One white man who won the trust of Aborigines", National Times (6–11 June 1977), p.24.

Aviation accidents and incidents in the Soviet Union and Russia
1950s	1950 Sverdlovsk plane crash Aeroflot Flight 4 1958 Aeroflot Tu-104 Kanash crash Aeroflot Flight 315 (1959) Aeroflot Flight 120
1960s	Aeroflot Flight 315 (1960) Aeroflot Flight 207 Austrian Airlines Flight 901 Aeroflot Flight 68 Aeroflot Flight 245 Aeroflot Flight 902 Aeroflot Flight 415 Aeroflot Flight 191 Aeroflot Flight 3 Aeroflot Flight 25 Aeroflot Flight 12 CCCP-45021 Aeroflot Flight 663 Aeroflot Flight 721 Aeroflot Flight 20 Aeroflot Flight 513 Aeroflot Flight 99 Aeroflot Flight 65 Aeroflot Flight 2723 Aeroflot Flight 5003 (1967) Aeroflot Flight 2230 Aeroflot Flight 51 Aeroflot Flight 15 Aeroflot Flight 831 Aeroflot Flight 826 1969 Yukhnov mid-air collision
1970s	Aeroflot Flight U-45 Aeroflot Flight 1661 CCCP-11000 CCCP-12996 Aeroflot Flight 1969 Aeroflot Flight 1912 Malév Flight 110 Aeroflot Flight 773 Aeroflot Flight 2174 Aeroflot Flight 1491 Aeroflot Flight 558 Aeroflot Flight 1036 Aeroflot Flight 217 Japan Airlines Flight 446 Aeroflot Flight 6263 Aeroflot Flight 141 Aeroflot Flight 630 Balkan Bulgarian Airlines Flight 307 Aeroflot Flight 6551 Aeroflot Flight 109 Aeroflot Flight 13 Aeroflot Flight 3932 Aeroflot Flight 964 Aeroflot Flight 19 Aeroflot Flight 2022 CCCP-75559 1974 Surgut mid-air collision Aeroflot Flight 2003 Aeroflot Flight 3739 (1976) Aeroflot Flight 909 Aeroflot Flight 1802 Aeroflot Flight 418 1976 Anapa mid-air collision Aeroflot Flight 2415 Aeroflot Flight 36 (1976) Aeroflot Flight 3843 Aeroflot Flight 5003 (1977) Aeroflot Flight 331 CCCP-65639 Aeroflot Flight 2 Korean Air Lines Flight 902 Aeroflot Flight 1080 Aeroflot Flight 1691 1979 Dniprodzerzhynsk mid-air collision Aeroflot Flight 5484
1980s	Aeroflot Flight 4225 1981 Pushkin Tu-104 crash Aeroflot Flight 498 1981 Armenia mid-air collision Aeroflot Flight 811 Aeroflot Flight 3603 Aeroflot Flight 8641 Aeroflot Flight 411 Aeroflot Flight 343 Aeroflot Flight 5463 Aeroflot Flight 601 Aeroflot Flight 3352 Aeroflot Flight 3519 Aeroflot Flight 7841 Aeroflot Flight 8381 Aeroflot Flight 7425 Aeroflot Flight 101/435 Aeroflot Flight 2306 Aeroflot Flight 6502 Aeroflot Flight 892 Aeroflot Flight 505 Aeroflot Flight 528 Aeroflot Flight 3739 (1988) Korean Air Lines Flight 007
1990s	Aeroflot Flight 2808 (1992) Sakha Avia Flight 301 (1993) Aeroflot Flight 593 (1994) Stavropolskaya Aktsionernaya Avia Flight 1023 (1997)
2000s	Vladivostok Air Flight 352 (2001) Siberia Airlines Flight 1812 (2001) Pulkovo Aviation Enterprise Flight 9560 (2002) 2004 Russian aircraft bombings (2004) Armavia Flight 967 (2006) S7 Airlines Flight 778 (2006) Aeroflot Flight 821 (2008)
2010s	Smolensk air disaster (2010) Dagestan Airlines Flight 372 (2010) Kolavia Flight 348 (2011) RusAir Flight 9605 (2011) Lokomotiv Yaroslavl plane crash (2011) Red Wings Airlines Flight 9268 (2012) Tatarstan Airlines Flight 363 (2013) 2014 Vnukovo Airport Falcon 50 crash (2014) Flydubai Flight 981 (2016) 2016 Russian Defence Ministry Tupolev Tu-154 crash (2016) Khabarovsk Airlines Flight 463 (2017) Saratov Airlines Flight 703 (2018) Aeroflot Flight 1492 (2019) Ural Airlines Flight 178 (2019)