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On March 23, 1994, one of the most tragic incidents in aviation history unfolded, claiming the lives of 75 people. Aeroflot Flight 593, carrying 63 passengers and 12 crew members, was being piloted by Captain Andrew Viktorovich Danilov, an experienced aviator with over 9,500 flying hours.
The flight departed from Sheremetyevo International Airport in Moscow, Russia, heading to Hong Kong’s Kai Tak Airport shortly after midnight. Danilov was accompanied by First Officer Igor Vasilyevich Piskaryov, who had logged 5,885 flight hours, and Relief Captain Yaroslav Vladimirovich Kudrinsky, who had 8,940 hours of experience.
Onboard, the captain’s two children were on their first international flight with their father, unaware of the catastrophe that was about to unfold.
While the plane was cruising on autopilot, most passengers were sound asleep. However, things began to take a fateful turn at 00:43, when Kudrinsky’s 13-year-old daughter sat in her father’s seat and began adjusting the autopilot’s heading. She was attempting to simulate flying the plane.
At 00:51, Kudrinsky allowed his 15-year-old son to take control of the aircraft. The exact reason for this is unclear, but it’s believed that he may have assumed the autopilot would negate any effect the teenager’s actions might have.
However, at 00:54,when the teenager manipulated the control stick for over 30 seconds , exerting up to 10 kilograms of pressure, he unintentionally contradicted the autopilot’s settings, which had been maintaining the aircraft’s stability. The boy’s actions changed the flight control settings to manual, unbeknownst to anyone aboard.
As the autopilot fought to regain control, it clashed with the boy’s inputs, which soon increased to 12 and 13 kilograms. This ultimately resulted in the disconnection of the autopilot servo from the aileron control linkage.
The crew, unfamiliar with the Airbus setup, failed to notice a crucial non-audible warning light. They were more accustomed to flying Russian-built aircraft, which led to a series of oversights. The plane began to bank, and with the autopilot unable to maintain altitude, the aircraft’s wings tilted at an increasingly dangerous angle.
In a desperate move, Captain Kudrinsky ordered the co-pilot to take control as he moved his son from the cockpit. The situation worsened when, after adjusting the seat and re-engaging the autopilot, the bank angle had reached 90 degrees. At this extreme angle, the Airbus A310 was unable to recover.
The pilots struggled to regain control of the plane, which now began a steep climb before stalling. The aircraft then spiraled out of control, plummeting rapidly toward the ground.
The descent continued as the aircraft veered off its intended flight path, dropping below the minimum safe altitude over mountainous terrain. At 00:59, air traffic controllers in Novokuznetsk attempted to contact the flight for a position update, but the aircraft had disappeared from radar.
At 00:58, just two minutes after the critical moment, Flight 593 crashed at a high vertical speed of approximately 160 mph into the Kuznetsk Alatau Mountain range in the Kemerovo Oblast region of southern Russia. Tragically, all 75 people on board died.
Though Aeroflot initially denied any fault on the part of the flight crew, it was forced to change its narrative after a leaked copy of the cockpit voice recorder transcript revealed the true cause of the tragedy.
