Incident Overview
On a weekly scheduled passenger flight from Tel Aviv to Novosibirsk, the aircraft, cruising at an altitude of 36,000 feet over the Black Sea, disappeared from radar screens at 1344LT. No distress call was issued by the crew. The aircraft entered an uncontrolled descent and crashed into the sea approximately 185 km off Adler, sinking to a depth of 2,000 metres.
Casualties
All 78 occupants were killed in the crash.
Missile Strike
Ten days after the incident, the President of Ukraine officially confirmed that the aircraft had been shot down by a surface-to-air missile of type S200. The Ukrainian Army was completing exercises off Feodosia, south Crimea, when the incident occurred. The missile struck the aircraft while it was on international flight path B-145 at an altitude of 11,100 m.
Probable Cause
The official findings state that the catastrophe involving Tu-154M RA-85693 occurred during the execution of passenger charter flight #1812 by the crew of Sibir airline. While traveling along international flight path B-145 at an altitude of 11,100 m, the aircraft was struck by the 5B14Sh warhead of a 5B28 missile from an S-200B surface-to-air missile system, launched from a position near the town of Feodosia on the Crimean Peninsula, with coordinates 45°03'48"N Lat. and 36°05'07"E Long.