ASN Wikibase Occurrence # 322564
Date: | Tuesday 24 August 2004 |
Time: | 22:53 |
Type: | Tupolev Tu-134A-3 |
Owner/operator: | Volga-Aviaexpress |
Registration: | RA-65080 |
MSN: | 60065 |
Year of manufacture: | 1977 |
Engine model: | Soloviev D-30-III |
Fatalities: | Fatalities: 44 / Occupants: 44 |
Aircraft damage: | Destroyed, written off |
Category: | UI |
Location: | near Buchalki -
Russia
|
Phase: | En route |
Nature: | Passenger - Scheduled |
Departure airport: | Moskva-Domodedovo Airport (DME/UUDD) |
Destination airport: | Volgograd Airport (VOG/URWW) |
Confidence Rating: | |
Narrative:Volga-Aviaexpress Flight 1303, a Tupolev Tu-134, departed Moscow about 22:30 for a flight to Volgograd, Russia. At an altitude of 8100 m an explosion occurred inside cabin on the right hand side on seat row 19. An explosive decompression followed and the aircraft entered a descent. It subsequently broke up and crashed, killing all 44 on board.
It crashed almost simultaneously with a Sibir Tupolev Tu-154 which had also departed Domodedovo earlier that night. Traces of an explosive device were found in the wreckage. It appeared that the explosives had been carried aboard by a female passenger. Two female suicide bombers arrived at Moscow at 19:45 on the same day on a flight from Makhachkala in the company of another two Chechens. They had taken aside on arrival and were handed to a police captain in charge of antiterrorist precautions, but they were released without apparently having been searched. Both women then bought tickets on the Sibir flight to Sochi and the Volga-Aviaexpress to Volgograd from a black-market peddler. After bribing a Sibir Airlines employee in charge of check-in and boarding one of the women was able to bypass security and get on board the Tupolev Tu-154.
The cause of the crashes of Tu-154 RA 85556 and Tu-134 RA 65080 aircrafts on August 24, 2004 was the destruction of aircraft construction in flight as a result of the impact of explosive charges.
Sources:
Ministry of Transport of the Russian Federation gazeta.ru
ITAR-TASS
Location
Images:
photo (c) via Werner Fischdick; Sharjah Airport (SHJ); March 2002
Revision history:
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