| Aeroflot Flight 217 | |
| Occurrence Type: | Accident |
| Summary: | Undetermined |
| Site: | Near Sheremetyevo International Airport, Lobnya, Russian SFSR, Soviet Union |
| Coordinates: | 56.0778°N 37.41°W |
| Aircraft Type: | Ilyushin Il-62 |
| Operator: | Aeroflot |
| Iata: | SU217 |
| Icao: | AFL217 |
| Callsign: | AEROFLOT 217 |
| Tail Number: | CCCP-86671 |
| Origin: | Orly Airport |
| Stopover: | Shosseynaya Airport |
| Destination: | Sheremetyevo International Airport |
| Occupants: | 174 |
| Passengers: | 164 |
| Crew: | 10 |
| Fatalities: | 174 |
| Survivors: | 0 |
Aeroflot Flight 217 was a non-scheduled international passenger flight from Orly Airport in Paris to Sheremetyevo International Airport in Moscow, with a stopover at Shosseynaya Airport (now Pulkovo Airport) in Leningrad (now Saint Petersburg). On 13 October 1972, the Ilyushin Il-62 airliner operating the flight crashed on approach to Sheremetyevo, with the loss of all 164 passengers and crew of 10. At the time, it was the world's deadliest civil aviation disaster, until it was surpassed by the Kano air disaster in Nigeria in 1973.[1], the crash of Flight 217 remains the second-deadliest accident involving an Il-62, after LOT Flight 5055, and the second-deadliest on Russian soil, after Aeroflot Flight 3352.[2] [3] [4]
| Nation | Number | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Algeria | 6 | ||
| Australia | 1 | ||
| Chile | 38 | ||
| East Germany | 1 | ||
| Soviet Union | 118 | ||
| data-sort-value="zzz" | Total ! | 174 |
Shortly before the expected landing, the plane was flying at the altitude of 1200m (3,900feet) and received the ATC instructions to descend to 400m (1,300feet). The crew confirmed and started to descend, but later there was no action to return to the horizontal flight. The plane passed the 400m (1,300feet) mark with 20m/s vertical velocity, no expected report to ATC and engines still running at low thrust. It crashed shortly afterwards, with landing gear up, spoilers retracted and horizontal speed about 620km/h.[5]
The cause of the crash could not be determined. Investigators believed the most probable cause was the 'psycho-physiological incapacitation of the crew for reasons unknown'.[6] Somewhere around 500m-600mm (1,600feet-2,000feetm) altitude, 30–25 seconds before impact, the pilots either had been incapacitated or lost control of the plane.