What happened
On a flight traveling from Komsomolsk-on-Amur to Blagoveshchensk, an AN-24 carrying 27 passengers and five crew members departed Komsomolsk-on-Amur Airport at 14:56 local time. During this period, two Tupolev TU-16K bombers, registered CCCP-07034 and CCCP-07514, were conducting weather reconnaissance from Zavitinsk Air Base with six crew members aboard each aircraft.
While cruising at an altitude of 5,220 meters in clear weather, the AN-24 collided with the Tupolev CCCP-07514. The impact sent both planes into an uncontrolled descent, leading to a crash in an uninhabited region approximately 70 km east of Zavitinsk. Both aircraft were destroyed upon impact.
The collision resulted in 31 fatalities among the occupants of the AN-24 and all six crew members on the TU-16K. One 20-year-old passenger from the AN-24 was discovered alive with minor injuries in the surrounding taiga three days after the event.
Findings
Investigations concluded that the accident was caused by ineffective flight management and organization within the Zavitinsk airspace. The collision occurred because of a failure to follow established procedures and a significant lack of coordination and communication between civilian air traffic controllers and military controllers.