Aeroflot Flight 343

Aeroflot Flight 343

CCCP-86470, the aircraft involved in the accident, photographed 8 months prior.
Accident
Date	29 September 1982 (1982-09-29)
Summary	Mechanical failure, runway excursion
Site	Luxembourg Findel Airport 49°37′24″N 006°12′16″E
Aircraft
Aircraft type	Ilyushin Il-62M
Operator	Aeroflot
IATA flight No.	SU343
ICAO flight No.	AFL343
Call sign	AEROFLOT 343
Registration	CCCP-86470
Flight origin	Sheremetyevo International Airport, Moscow
1st stopover	Luxembourg Findel Airport
2nd stopover	José Martí International Airport
Destination	Jorge Chávez International Airport
Occupants	77
Passengers	66
Crew	11
Fatalities	7
Injuries	70
Survivors	70

On 29 September 1982, Aeroflot Flight 343, a scheduled international passenger flight flying from Moscow-Sheremetyevo Airport to Jorge Chávez International Airport, on a stopover at Luxembourg-Findel International Airport, veered off the runway , fatally injuring seven occupants. The Ilyushin Il-62M operating the flight suffered a mechanical failure.

Aircraft and crew

The aircraft involved in the accident was an Ilyushin Il-62M operated by Aeroflot, registered CCCP-86470. The aircraft rolled off the assembly line of the Kazan production facility in April 1977. At the time of the accident, the aircraft had 10,325 flight hours.

The crew members consisted of 6 pilots and 5 flight attendants:

The captain, aged 47, had a total of 9,487 flight hours including 3,168 hours on the Ilyushin Il-62M; the first officer, aged 55, had a total of 10,441 flight hours including 3,605 hours on the Il-62M; the flight engineer, aged 46, had a total of 7,565 flight hours including 2,893 hours on the Il-62M; the radio operator, aged 34, had a total of 1,282 flight hours, all of which were on the Il-62M; the navigator, aged 46, had a total of 8,527 flight hours, including 2,698 hours on the Il-62M; and an extra pilot, a 58-year-old flight instructor, had 8,701 total flight hours, with 4,102 hours on the Il-62M.

Accident

Aeroflot Flight 343 was a regularly scheduled international passenger flight flying from departing from Sheremetyevo International Airport, Russia, to Jorge Chávez International Airport, Peru, via stopover flights at Luxembourg Findel Airport, Luxembourg and José Martí International Airport, Cuba. At 18:50 GMT (UTC+00:00), weather conditions at Luxembourg Findel Airport included winds of 4 knots (7.4 km/h) with a wind direction of 120°, with visibility being described as "CAVOK".

The aircraft took off from Moscow at 16:15.

Aftermath

The Soviet Government expressed its condolences to the relatives and friends of the victims.

Investigation

Following the accident, Luxembourgish authorities sent a notification of the crash to Soviet authorities as the aircraft was built, registered, and operated by the country. Luxembourgish aviation authorities requested that experts from Belgium's aeronautical administration conduct the investigation. A Soviet delegation participated in the investigation. In collaboration with Belgian experts, Soviet technical experts from the Ministry of Civil Aviation participated in the technical examinations of the engines and the thrust reversers at Luxembourg Findel Airport.

The investigation determined the probable cause of the accident to be mechanical failure of the thrust reversers on engine No.1:

French: L'accident peut être attribué à une panne mécanique affectant le mécanisme de commande des inverseurs de poussée survenue dans la phase la plus critique de l'atterrissage. Cette panne, soudaine et imprévisible, n'a pas été identifiée par l'équipage et a rendu l'avion incontrôlable en direction pendant l'exécution de la procédure normal d'atterrissage.

[The accident may be attributed to a mechanical failure affecting the mechanism of controlling thrust which occurred during the most critical phase of landing. This failure, sudden and unforeseeable, was not identified by the crew and made the aircraft uncontrollable in direction during the execution of the normal landing procedure.]

— Aeronautical Administration of the Kingdom of Belgium, page 25.