Flight LZ101 Diversion and Crash Near Bratislava (LZ-BEN)

Flight Details and Diversion Flight LZ101 was a scheduled international service operating from Sofia to Berlin, with intermediate stops in Budapest and Prague. The four-engine aircraft departed Budapest-Ferihegy Airport at 1146 local time, bound for Prague. During the flight, the crew was informed that Prague-Ruzyne Airport was closed to all traffic due to poor weather conditions. Consequently, the crew diverted to Bratislava-Ivanka Airport, where the aircraft landed at 1258 local time. ## Resumption of Flight and Crash At approximately 1550 hours, the pilot-in-command decided to resume the flight to Prague. The aircraft took off from Bratislava Airport at 1628:30. Following takeoff, the crew executed a starboard turn in accordance with flight clearance instructions, which directed a right turn onto the OKR Beacon, a climb to 300 meters, and then a climb onto the NI beacon to a flight level of 5,100 meters. At 1630:20 hours, the flight was requested to change to the ATC approach service frequency of 120.9 Mc/s. The crew confirmed receipt of this message but did not retune the radio. Shortly after, the aircraft crashed into wooded ground in the mountains. The impact occurred 8 kilometers from the threshold of runway 31 at Bratislava Airport, at an altitude of 420 meters above mean sea level, which was 288 meters above the airport level. The aircraft was totally destroyed, and all 82 occupants perished in the crash.