Beijing – Omsk – Moscow

On October 17, 1958 at 09:30 PM, Beijing – Omsk – Moscow experienced a crash involving Tupolev TU-104, operated by Aeroflot - Russian International Airlines, with the event recorded near Kanash Republic of Chuvashia.

The flight was categorized as scheduled revenue flight and the reported phase was flight at a plain, valley crash site.

80 people were known to be on board, 80 fatalities were recorded, 0 survivors were identified or estimated. This corresponds to an estimated fatality rate of 100.0%.

Crew on board: 9, crew fatalities: 9, passengers on board: 71, passenger fatalities: 71, other fatalities: 0.

The listed crash cause is weather. While cruising at an altitude of 11,000 meters on a flight from Omsk to Moscow, the crew was informed by ATC that the route to Vnukovo was closed due to weather deterioration and was instructed to divert to Sverdlovsk and to reduce his altitude to 10,000 meters. Two minutes later, the pilot sent a mayday message, reporting he was losing control of the airplane that entered a dive. By an angle of 80°, the airplane struck the ground and crashed in a field located along a railroad track near Kanash. The aircraft totally disintegrated on impact and all 80 occupants were killed, among them several foreign citizens such as three Sudanese, one Cambodian (Cambodian ambassador in China), eight Czech, three Romanian, one Polish, five East-German, five Hungarian, three Moroccan, two British, five French, one Iraqi and one Laotian.

Aircraft reference details include registration CCCP-42362, MSN 8 66 010 02, year of manufacture 1958.