A plane in good condition, good weather, experienced pilots… There was no reason for Aeroflot flight 593 to crash in the middle of the Siberian taiga on March 23, 1994. None, except that 15-year-old child took orders. Here is the story tragic of this air accident which killed 75 passengers and crew members…
In the dead of night, flames rise above the snow-covered taiga. The crash occurred in the middle of Siberia, approximately 4,000 km from Moscow. Hindered by the snow and the mountainous terrain, the rescue teams did not arrive on the scene until two and a half hours later. “They found no survivors among the burning debris of the plane”announcement West France in its edition two days later. Toll: 75 dead. And no explanation. “The Russian crew did not make any distress calls,” the article states.
Departing from Moscow airport, Aeroflot flight 593 suddenly plunged four hours after takeoff, while it was supposed to fly to Hong Kong. It crashed around 1:30 a.m. near the town of Mezhduretchensk. All 63 passengers and 12 crew members were killed instantly. It was thirty years ago.
An unimaginable scenario
That night, the weather was good. The aircraft, an Airbus A310 put into service less than three years earlier, is in good condition. And the particularly experienced crew. Commander Andrei Viktorovich Danilov, 40 years old, has more than 9,500 flight hours; his 33-year-old co-pilot, Igor Vassilievitch Piskariov, almost 6,000 hours. To carry out this regular liaison, they are accompanied by an equally experienced relief commander. So what happened on board?
The black boxes, found the next day among the debris, will provide the keys to an unimaginable scenario. The flight parameters first confirm that the aircraft made a dive of 10,000 meters in just four minutes. The audio recordings reveal that the pilots were not alone in the cockpit… and that at the time of the events, a 15-year-old boy was at the controls!
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The pilots don’t understand
The thread of history is reconstituted. A few minutes before the tragedy, while the aircraft was in cruise, the co-pilot invited his two children to visit the cockpit. “Previously it was allowed and it was something many people wanted to do, especially on long journeys”recalls the specialized site Aeroflap. But Igor Vassilievitch Piskariov does not stop there: he first offers his daughter Iana, 12 years old, to sit in the front left seat of the pilot. Then it’s the turn of Eldar, his 15-year-old son.
At this moment, there is no risk a priori: the plane is on automatic pilot and the co-pilot is at his post. Except that the teenager begins to exert pressure on the flight controls. Enough to partially deactivate the autopilot and to change the position of the ailerons. No alarm goes off, only a light comes on on the dashboard. The pilots don’t seem to notice anything. When they realize that the plane is starting to turn to the right, they do not understand the reason, as recounted in the episode of the show Mayday: Dangers in the Sky dedicated to the crash.
The child finds himself pinned to his seat
The device takes a severe inclination until it reaches 45°. Far too much to maintain altitude. He then begins to fall. The centrifugal force is so strong that it makes the movements of people in the cockpit very difficult. Nailed to his seat, the teenager is unable to give way to the pilot. “Eldar, get up… Get down Eldar, do you see the danger? »his father then shouts to him.
The co-pilot tried as best he could to get the plane back on its axis, but the Airbus stalled and quickly lost altitude. The autopilot, some functions of which are always active, attempts to compensate for the stall by maintaining altitude and increasing engine power. So many contradictory commands which make the device uncontrollable.
After finally managing to regain his place, the pilot was unable to stabilize the aircraft. The Airbus arches, rises almost vertically, before twisting again. Passengers are then crushed in their seats, and sometimes find themselves in a situation of weightlessness. Aeroflot Flight 593 ultimately crashed in the Alatau Mountains of Kuznetsk at a speed of approximately 260 km/h.
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“It was enough to let go of the controls”
According to the investigation, by trying to straighten the plane by pulling on the stick, the pilots made things worse. But they had never been trained for such a situation on the Airbus A310. “All we had to do was let go of the controls. The plane is in fact equipped with a survival mechanism which prevents it from stalling, even at very low speed”specifies the show Mayday.
After this tragedy, the aircraft manufacturer, as well as the company, completed pilot training to enable them to better control the reactions of the autopilot. Regulations relating to the presence of third parties in the cockpit have also been strengthened. Which did not prevent other abuses. In 2017, two pilots from the airline Air Algérie were suspended for having left the controls of their plane to a 10-year-old child for a few moments. They wanted to please this young orphan, filmed as part of a television show.
