Aeroflot Flight 593

Summary
Date	March 23, 1994
Cause	Pilot error, 15-year old in control of airplane
Site	near Mezhdurechensk, Siberia, Russia
Fatalities	75
Injuries	0
Aircraft
Aircraft type	Airbus A310-304
Operator	Aeroflot (Аэрофлот)
Tail number	F-OGQS
Ship name	Glinka
Passengers	63
Crew	12
Survivors	0

Aeroflot Flight 593 was an accident on March 23, 1994 in which a RAL Russian Air Lines Airbus A310-304 passenger airliner, registration F-OGQS, operating on behalf of Aeroflot, crashed into a hillside in Siberia. All 75 passengers and crew were killed. The cockpit voice recorder revealed that the pilot's 15-year-old son, Eldar Kudrinsky, was initially at the controls when the incident began, and that he had unknowingly activated an automatic feature of the A310's autopilot that many pilots at the time were unfamiliar with. is the 82nd day of the year (83rd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1994 (MCMXCIV) The year 1994 was designated as the International Year of the Family and the International Year of the Sport and the Olympic Ideal by the United Nations. ... Pilot error is a term used to describe the cause of a crash of an airworthy aircraft where the pilot is considered to be principally or partially at fault. ... Image File history File links Flag_of_Russia. ... Mezhdurechensk (Russian: ) is a city in Kemerovo Oblast, Russia. ... This article is about Siberia as a whole. ... The Airbus A310 is a short to medium range widebody airliner developed from the Airbus A300 and manufactured by Airbus Industrie. ... JSC Aeroflot - Russian Airlines (Russian: ) (MICEX:AFLT RTS:AFLT), or Aeroflot (Russian: ) as the airline is commonly known, is the Russian flag carrier and the largest airline in Russia. ... is the 82nd day of the year (83rd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1994 (MCMXCIV) The year 1994 was designated as the International Year of the Family and the International Year of the Sport and the Olympic Ideal by the United Nations. ... JSC Aeroflot - Russian Airlines (Russian: ) (MICEX:AFLT RTS:AFLT), or Aeroflot (Russian: ) as the airline is commonly known, is the Russian flag carrier and the largest airline in Russia. ... The Airbus A310 is a short to medium range widebody airliner developed from the Airbus A300 and manufactured by Airbus Industrie. ... An Airbus A340 airliner operated by Air Jamaica An airliner is a large fixed-wing aircraft with the primary function of transporting paying passengers. ... This article is about Siberia as a whole. ... Cockpit Voice Recorder (Exhibit in Deutsches Museum, Munich, Germany). ... An autopilot is a mechanical, electrical, or hydraulic system used to guide a vehicle without assistance from a human being. ...

The jet was en route from Moscow's Sheremetyevo International Airport (SVO) to Hong Kong's former Hong Kong international airport (Kai Tak Airport). The pilot, Yaroslav Kudrinsky, was taking his two children on their first international flight and they were brought to the cockpit while he was on duty. With the autopilot active, Kudrinsky, against regulations, offered to let them sit at the controls. First his daughter took the pilot's left front seat. Kudrinsky adjusted the autopilot's heading to give her the impression that she was turning the plane, though she actually had no control of the plane. Next, his son Eldar took the pilot's seat. Unlike his sister, Eldar applied enough force to the steering column to contradict the autopilot for 30 seconds. For other uses, see Moscow (disambiguation). ... Sheremetyevo International Airport (Russian: Шереме́тьево) (IATA: SVO, ICAO: UUEE), is an International airport which serves Moscow, Russia. ... Kai Tak Airport (Traditional Chinese: ) was the international airport of Hong Kong from 1925 until 1998. ...

What nobody knew was that he had partially disconnected the autopilot, and the flight computer switched the plane's ailerons to manual control, while maintaining control over the other flight systems. The plane did not audibly signal a warning that this had occurred; although an indicator light did come on. It apparently went unnoticed by the pilots, who had previously flown planes with an audible warning signal. The first to notice a problem was Eldar, who observed that the plane was banking right. Shortly after, the flight path indicator changed to show they were in a holding pattern (when a plane circles an airport until it is clear to land). This confused the pilots for nine seconds. For the band with a similar name, see The Ailerons Ailerons are hinged control surfaces attached to the trailing edge of the wing of a fixed-wing aircraft. ...

Soon the plane banked past a 45-degree angle (steeper than it was designed for). This increased the g-force on the pilots and crew, making their bodies feel much heavier than usual, and making it impossible for the Captain to replace his son at the controls. After banking as much as 90 degrees, the remaining functions of the autopilot tried to correct the plane's attitude by putting the plane in an almost vertical ascent, nearly stalling the plane. The co-pilot and Eldar managed to get the plane into a nosedive, which reduced the G-force on the pilots and enabled the Captain to take the controls. Though he and his co-pilot did regain control, their altitude by then was too low to recover, and the plane crashed. The term g force or gee force refers to the symbol g, the force of acceleration due to gravity at the earths surface. ... In aerodynamics, a stall is a condition in which an excessive angle of attack causes loss of lift due to disruption of airflow. ...

A recovery procedure that the pilots were not made aware of on the A310 was that, had their hands been taken off the controls during the stall, the plane would have taken its own corrective action to recover.

This incident is very similar to that in the novel Airframe; both accidents had unauthorized family members at the controls and would have been avoided had autopilot been allowed to take over. A season three episode of the Canadian-produced TV series Mayday, "Kid in the Cockpit", featured this crash. Airframe is a novel by Michael Crichton, first published in hardback edition in 1996 and as a paperback edition in 1997 by Ballantine Books. ... This article is about a TV series. ...

The flight number

Although it is common airline practice to retire the flight numbers of flights involved in fatal accidents, Aeroflot continues to use flight number 593 on its Moscow–Hong Kong service as of January 2007. The service has been expanded from twice weekly to four times a week. The additional flights are assigned flight number 595. Both flights are now, however, being operated with Boeing 767-300 aircraft. January 2007 is the first month of that year. ... The Boeing 767 is a commercial passenger airplane manufactured by Boeing Commercial Airplanes. ...

External links

• Airdisaster.com account of the crash, with wreckage photo.
• Aviation Safety Network account of the crash, with cited sources.
• Airliners.net picture of Glinka.
• Russian Air Roulette

Coordinates: 53°30′N, 88°15′E Map of Earth showing lines of latitude (horizontally) and longitude (vertically), Eckert VI projection; large version (pdf, 1. ...