Crash of a Tupolev TU-154M in the in Black Sea: 78 killed
Date & Time:
Oct 4, 2001 at 1344 LT
Operator:
Registration:
RA-85693
Survivors:
No
Schedule:
Tel Aviv - Novosibirsk
MSN:
91A866
YOM:
1991
Flight number:
SBI1812
Crew on board:
12
Crew fatalities:
Pax on board:
66
Pax fatalities:
Other fatalities:
Total fatalities:
78
Aircraft flight hours:
16705
Aircraft flight cycles:
7281
Circumstances:
While cruising at an altitude of 36,000 feet over the Black Sea on a weekly schedule service from Tel Aviv to Novosibirsk, the aircraft disappeared from radar screens at 1344LT. The crew did not send any distress call. The aircraft entered an uncontrolled descent and crashed in the sea about 185 km off Adler, and sank to a depth of 2,000 metres. All 78 occupants were killed. Ten days after the crash, the President of Ukraine confirmed officially that the aircraft has been shot down by a surface-to-air missile (Type S200) as the Ukrainian Army was completing exercices off Feodosia, south Crimea.
Probable cause:
The catastrophe involving Tu-154M RA-85693 occurred during the execution, by crew of the Sibir airline, of passenger charter flight # 1812 from Tel Aviv to Novosibirsk. During travel along international flight path B-145 at an altitude of 11,100 m, the aircraft was struck by the 5B14Sh warhead of a 5B28 missile from an S-200B surface-to-air missile system, launched from a position near the town of Feodosia on the Crimean Peninsula, with coordinates 45°03'48"N. Lat. and 36°05'07"E. Long.
