Ilyushin II-18

Flight LZ101 was a scheduled international air service from Sofia to Berlin with intermediate stops in Budapest and Prague. The four engine airplane departed Budapest-Ferihegy Airport at 1146LT bound for Prague, but en route, the crew was informed the airport of Prague-Ruzyne was closed to all traffic due to poor weather conditions. So the crew decided to divert to Bratislava-Ivanka Airport where he landed at 1258LT. About 1550 hours the pilot-in-command of the aircraft decided to resume his flight to Prague. He took off from Bratislava Airport at 1628:30. After take-off he made a turn to starboard according to the flight clearance with the instruction to perform a right turn on to the OKR Beacon, to climb only to 300 m and then to climb on to the NI beacon up to the flight level of 5 100 m. At 1630:20 hours the flight was requested to change to the ATC approach service frequency, 120.9 Mc/s. The crew confirmed reception of this message, but they did not carry out the retuning. Shortly afterwards the aircraft crashed into wooded ground in the mountains. The accident occurred 8 km away from the 31 runway threshold of Bratislava Airport at an altitude of 420 m above MSL, i.e. 288 m above the airport level. The aircraft was totally destroyed and none of the 82 occupants survived the crash.

During take-off roll in poor weather conditions, the engine number 3 failed (probably due to the ingestion of wet snow). The aircraft veered off the snow covered runway to the right after a roll of 550 meters, got briefly airborne with a high angle of attack until the tail struck a 70 cm high mound. Out of control, the aircraft crashed in flames onto a hillside located 1,400 meters further on, by a river. Two passengers and a crew member were killed while all 65 other occupants were injured. The aircraft was destroyed.

During takeoff run at Arkhangelsk-Talaghi Airport, the crew encountered control problems. As the airplane was unstable, the captain decided to abort the takeoff procedure and started an emergency brake maneuver. Unable to stop within the remaining distance, the aircraft overrun and came to rest. Ten passengers were injured while all 111 other occupants were unhurt. The aircraft was considered as damaged beyond repair due to heavy structural damages.

A multiple engine failure forced the crew to attempt an emergency landing near Cienfuegos. The aircraft crash landed in a field and came to rest. Two passengers were killed and two others were injured. All other 89 occupants escaped uninjured. The aircraft was damaged beyond repair.

On the leg from Krasnoyarsk to Magadan of a flight from Moscow to Magadan, the autopilot system failed while the aircraft was flying at a height of 8,000 metres by night. The aircraft banked to the left at an angle of 80-90°, entered a dive and descended at a speed of 730 km/h. Control was recovered by the crew at a height of some 4,000 metres. The crew managed to land safely at Magadan-Sokol Airport but the aircraft suffered structural damage during the dive with up to 3.8 g forces. Transferred to the Yegoryevsk technical school on 14DEC66, the aircraft was eventually struck of charge in 16FEB71 due to its poor technical condition. There were no casualties.

The crew started the approach to Almaty Airport by night in below minima weather conditions. Despite the situation, the pilot continued the approach and let the aircraft pass below the glide. Suddenly, the airplane struck trees, banked right to an angle of 15° the crashed in flames in a snow covered field located 75 meters short of runway threshold. The wreckage was found 600 meters to the right of the extended centerline and the aircraft was destroyed upon impact. Three crew members and 64 passengers were killed while 39 other occupants were injured.

While descending to Belgrade-Surcin Airport, the crew encountered poor weather conditions. On final, ATC informed the pilot his altitude was insufficient and that he was approaching below the glide. In foggy conditions, the airplane struck trees and crashed in flames in a dense wooded area located on the slope of Mt Avala (520 meters high) located about 20 km from the runway 30 threshold. The wreckage was found about 35 meters below the summit and all 33 occupants were killed. Among the victims were Marshall Sergei S. Biryuzov and General Vladimir I. Zhdanov accompanied by 15 WWII Veterans who were flying to Belgrade to take part to the celebration of the 20th Anniversary of the offensive of the city of Belgrade by the Soviet Army on 20 October 1944. Following the accident, all celebrations were cancelled.

Following an uneventful flight from Khabarovsk, the crew received the permission to descend to Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk Airport but was instructed to maintain a minimum altitude of 600 meters. By night, while in a flat attitude but slightly banked to the right, the airplane struck trees, stalled and crashed in a dense wooded area located on Mt Ufa, some 26 km northwest of the airport. Six passengers (three adults and three children) were seriously injured while 87 other occupants, among them all nine crew members, were killed.

On final approach to Magadan Airport, the four engine aircraft was too low and struck the ground short of runway, causing the undercarriage to be sheared off. The airplane belly landed and slid for dozen yards before coming to rest. There were no injuries but the aircraft was written off.

While cruising at an altitude of 7,500 meters, the engine number four failed. Unable to determine which of the right engine failed, the crew shot down both engines and feathered both propellers. Control was lost and the airplane banked right and entered a dive. The aircraft reached a rate of descent of 1,800 meters per minute (30 meters per second). The ailerons were sheared off and after passing through the last cloud layer at an altitude of 200 meters, the crew elected to regain control but the airplane struck the ground at a speed of 650 km/h and crashed in a snow covered field located 3,5 km southeast of Urakhcha. The aircraft disintegrated on impact and debris were found on 250 meters width and 800 meters long. Both right engines were found 600 meters away from the point of impact and elements of the ailerons were found some 12 km from the crash site. It was determined that both right engines were not running at impact while both left engines were turning at full power. The accident was not survivable.