Sunday, 23 December, 1984

– Russia

Aeroflot Flight 3519, a domestic scheduled passenger flight from Krasnoyarsk Airport (KJA/UNKL), Russia, to Irkutsk Airport (IKT/UIII), Russia, operated with a Tupolev Tu-154B-2, registration CCCP-85338, experienced an uncontained engine failure, a subsequent inflight fire and impact with terrain at Irkutsk Airport (IKT/UIII), Russia.

The seven crew and 103 passengers perished. Only one passenger survived. (110 fatalities, 1 survivor)

The crash of Flight 3519 is the ninth deadliest aviation accident on Russian soil. It is also the 12th deadliest crash involving the Tu-154.

– Details:

Two minutes after takeoff, at an altitude of 2040 m, the no. 3 engine suffered an uncontained failure. The no. 3 engine caught fire, but the flight engineer shut down engine no. 2. Some ten seconds later the engineer noticed the error and began attempts to restart engine no. 2. Meanwhile the crew was returning to the airport for an emergency landing. The no. 3 engine was then shut down and extinguishing bottles were fired. This was insufficient to put out the fire.

Then the no. 2 engine suddenly spooled up to takeoff power. The engine power levers did not have any effect and the crew shut down the engine but the fuel valve was not closed.

Meanwhile, the fire of the engine number 3 spread into the cavity of the pylon and the rear compartment where the APU was located. The fire continued to spread to engine no. 2. With one engine working the airplane passed the Outer Marker at an altitude of 175 m and a speed of 420 km/h.

Because of fire damage to the electrical system, the Voltage dropped. The hydraulics failed and the airplane could no longer be controlled. It rolled right and descended at a rate of 10 m/sec. The airplane struck the ground in a 50 degree right bank, four minutes and 30 seconds after the start of the emergency.

The reason for failure of engine no. 3 was a fatigue failure of the first stage low pressure compressor disk because of a metallurgical and manufacturing defect.