Accident Tu-154 near Qazvin

The Tu-154M (registration number EP-CPG, serial number 87A748, serial 0748) was launched by the Kuibyshev Aviation Plant (KuAPO) in April 1987 and was sold to Bakhtar Afghan Airlines (YA-TAR) on April 20 of that year. In 1988, it was transferred to Ariana Afghan Airlines , and in 1998 it was bought by Caspian Airlines (in March of the same year, its non-cash changed to EP-CPG). It is equipped with three turbojet engines D-30KU-154-II of the Rybinsk Engine-Building Plant ^{[5] [6]} .

According to the press secretary of the Main Directorate of Civil Aviation (GUGA) of Armenia Nelly Cherchinyan, “the crashed Tu-154M about a month ago underwent full maintenance at the airport of Russian Mineralnye Vody. After maintenance, this airliner had access to flights until 2010 inclusive ” ^[7] . However, the chief of staff of Mineralnye Vody Airport Yuri Samsonov refused to confirm this message ^[8] .

The crew of flight RV-7908 was as follows:

• The aircraft commander (FAC) is Ali Asghar Shir Akbari.
• The co - pilot is Javad Masumi Hesari.
• Navigator - Mahdi Firouse Souheil .
• Flight Engineer - Nima Salehie Rezve

8 cabin crew worked in the cabin :

• Garigouri Barseghian
• Soren Moughoumounian
• Seied Abas Ghaeem Maghami ,
• Amir Ali Maleki Nejad
• Feresht Samaki Rahmat,
• Sanaz Aslani
• Mariam Farhadi Haghani
• Mariam Kaman

Among the passengers on board the aircraft were 8 athletes and two coaches of the Iranian judo national team. They flew to Armenia to conduct training, and already from Yerevan they had to fly to Hungary to participate in the competition ^[9] .

In total, there were 168 people on board - 156 passengers and 12 crew members.

Flight RV-7908 departed from Tehran at 11:17 IRST (10:47 MSK).

At an altitude of 8700 meters, while climbing to a given FL320 level (9700 meters), the crew reported a fire in engine No. 1 ^[10] (according to other sources, the plane was already at FL340 level - 10,200 meters at that time). Further, the airliner sharply changed course (made a 270 ° turn) and began to rapidly lose altitude with an average vertical speed of up to 70 m / s, the pilots did not respond to requests from air traffic controllers and crews of nearby aircraft.

3 minutes after the start of the fall from the echelon, the RV-7908 flight crashed into a field 12 kilometers from Qazvin and completely collapsed. A crater 10 meters deep formed at the crash site, the wreckage of a plane scattered over a distance of more than 300 meters, one of the flight recorders was subsequently found 4 kilometers from the crash site. All 168 people were killed on board the aircraft, there were no dead or wounded on the ground ^[11] .

In accordance with international air law, the Interstate Aviation Committee (IAC) has formed a team of specialists that flew to Iran to participate in the investigation of the causes of the crash. It was headed by the honored pilot of the USSR Georgy Yachmenev. The activities of the group were carried out in cooperation with the aviation authorities of Iran and in full compliance with the provisions of Annex 13 “Investigation of aviation accidents and incidents” to the Convention on International Civil Aviation ( ICAO ) ^[12] .

On July 15, two of three flight recorders were discovered at the crash site of flight 7908. This was reported to Reuters with reference to Iranian television (Iranian English-language television channel Press TV ): " Two black boxes of a passenger plane were found that crashed in the north-west of the country ." It was also reported that when they hit the ground, the recorders were badly damaged, however, Iranian experts hope to decipher the information recorded on them (possibly with the participation of the Russian side).

Later on Thursday, July 16, the last aircraft recorder was discovered. According to Ahmad Isfandiyara, the head of the Iranian Red Cross and Red Crescent Society, the recorder was found 4 kilometers from the crash site and handed over to the Iranian flight safety service.

Iranian authorities have begun identifying the remains of 156 passengers and 12 crew members. The procedure was complicated by the fact that at the time of a severe blow to the ground the plane exploded and its fragments and charred fragments of bodies were scattered over a large area. “ We found several heads, fingers, and passenger passports ,” a local resident, Mustafa Babasharverdy, told the Associated Press . Ahmad Majidi, Iran’s Deputy Minister of Transport, said the DNA of relatives of the victims will be analyzed to identify the remains. “ All collected fragments of bodies scattered at the crash site were transferred to the Department of Forensic Expertise of the city of Qazvin. Today they will be sent to Tehran , ”said Majidi ^[7] .

At the end of August 2009, the commission investigating the causes of the disaster announced that the failure of the Tu-154 was the failure and subsequent destruction of engine No. 1 (left) ^[13] .

In 2011, Iran announced the final cause of the disaster - the destruction of the disk of the low-pressure compressor of engine No. 1 ^[14] . Broken debris damaged the fuel lines and caused a rapidly spreading engine fire, which subsequently led to the loss of control of the aircraft.

A year after the crash of flight 7908, Iran introduced a ban on the operation of the Tu-154 ^[15] .

• Description of the disaster on the Aviation Safety Network
• Official page of the IAC investigation (Russian)
• Accident of Tu-154M a / c "Caspian Airlines" in Iran (board EP-CPG), July 15, 2009. (Russian)
• " Meeting Notes Moscow IAC July 6, 2010 " ( Archive ) Iran Civil Aviation Organization