| Aeroflot Flight 31 | |
| Occurrence Type: | Accident |
| Summary: | Possible sabotage, engine failure |
| Site: | 8km (05miles) northwest of Moscow-Bykovo Airport, USSR |
| Aircraft Type: | Lisunov Li-2T |
| Operator: | Aeroflot |
| Tail Number: | CCCP-Л5000 |
| Origin: | Bykovo Airport, Moscow |
| Stopover: | Gorky Airport, Gorky |
| Destination: | Koltsovo Airport, Sverdlovsk |
| Crew: | 5 |
| Occupants: | 5 |
| Fatalities: | 5 |
| Survivors: | 0 |
Aeroflot Flight 31 was a cargo flight from Moscow-Bykovo Airport to Koltsovo Airport with a stopover in Gorky Airport. On, the Lisunov Li-2 operating the route crashed during takeoff after the right engine failed. The investigation assumed a sabotage to be the cause of the crash.[1] [2]
The accident aircraft was a Lisunov Li-2T (registration CCCP-Л5000, serial number 33444902).[3] It first flew in 1953, and its airframe had logged 2,188 hours by the time of the accident.
The aeroplane was carrying 1989kg (4,385lb) of cargo, which consisted of 1828kg (4,030lb) of mail and newspaper, 92kg (203lb) of clothes, and 69kg (152lb) of aircraft parts to Sverdlovsk.
The pilot performed takeoff at 11:28. At NaNm (-2,147,483,648feet), the right engine failed. Quickly, the aircraft lost height, colliding with multiple trees and hitting a house a kilometre away from the airport at 11:30, killing all five crew members on board. The wreckage then caught fire, destroying it and the house. There were no ground fatalities, as the owner had left just minutes before the crash.
The investigation determined the cause to be a sabotage, evidenced by a nut or an M4 female screw placed in the fuel system of the Li-2, causing the fuel pump to fail. Eight days before the crash, a similar case was reported.