What happened
The incident involved two aircraft operating in close proximity to Moscow. The first was a TS-62 (Douglas C-47A-10-DK) conducting a positioning flight from Vnukovo Airport to Bykovo. On board were four crew members and four passengers, all of whom were pilots using the flight for repositioning. The second aircraft was an Aeroflot Ilyushin II-12P registered CCCP-L1731, which had departed for Tashkent via Lyubertsy.
Shortly after takeoff, while in the initial climb phase, the two aircraft collided mid-air. Following the impact, both planes lost control and dove toward the ground. They crashed into a wooded area located approximately 6 kilometers southeast of the airport in Valuevo. The force of the crash destroyed both airframes completely.
Findings
The official investigation highlighted procedural failures by the crew of the Ilyushin II-12P as the primary contributing factors. Although the aircraft was originally parked at Khodynka for transfer to Tbilisi, a different Aeroflot crew from the Uzbekistan Division assumed responsibility for the flight to Tashkent after the original crew arrived late.
After takeoff, this crew failed to inform Air Traffic Control of the change in operational details. They subsequently deviated from their intended route and continued flying at an insufficient altitude, which led directly to the collision with the TS-62. All 12 occupants across both aircraft were killed in the accident.