PROFILBARU.COM

Aeroflot Flight 4225
	An Aeroflot Tu-154B-2, similar to the aircraft involved in the accident
Accident
Date	8 July 1980
Summary	Microburst-induced windshear, loss of airspeed due to thermal currents causing a stall
Site	Near Almaty International Airport, Almaty, Kazakh SSR, Soviet Union ; 43°19′42″N 76°59′19″E / 43.32833°N 76.98861°E
Aircraft
Aircraft type	Tupolev Tu-154B-2
Operator	Aeroflot
IATA flight No.	SU4225
ICAO flight No.	AFL4225
Call sign	AEROFLOT 4225
Registration	CCCP-85355
Flight origin	Almaty International Airport
Destination	Simferopol Airport
Occupants	166
Passengers	156
Crew	10
Fatalities	166
Survivors	0

Aeroflot Flight 4225 was a Tupolev Tu-154B-2 on a scheduled domestic passenger flight from Alma-Ata Airport (now Almaty) to Simferopol Airport on 8 July 1980. The aircraft had reached an altitude of no more than 500 feet when the airspeed suddenly dropped because of thermal currents it encountered during the climb out. This caused the airplane to stall less than 5 kilometres (3.1 mi; 2.7 nmi) from the airport, crash and catch fire, killing all 156 passengers and 10 crew on board.^[1] To date, it remains the deadliest aviation accident in Kazakhstan.^[1] At the time, the crash was the deadliest involving a Tupolev Tu-154 until Aeroflot Flight 3352 crashed in 1984, killing 178 people.

Accident

At the time of the accident, Alma-Ata was experiencing a heat wave. It was around 00:39 and Flight 4225 took off from Alma-Ata Airport in Soviet Kazakhstan.^[1] Only a few seconds after take off, the flight reached 500 feet (150 m) when the plane reached a zone of hot air and was caught in a downdraft. The Tupolev stalled, plummeted nose down into a farm near the suburbs of Alma-Ata and slid into a ravine, caught fire and disintegrated, killing everyone on board.^[2]^[3]

Investigation

The Soviet aviation board concluded that the crash was caused by windshear which took place while the aircraft was near its maximum takeoff weight for the local conditions which included mountains.^[2]^[4]

References

^ ^a ^b ^c Ranter, Harro. "ASN Aircraft accident Tupolev 154B-2 CCCP-85355 Alma-Ata Airport (ALA)". aviation-safety.net. Aviation Safety Network. Retrieved 25 January 2015.
^ ^a ^b "Катастрофа Ту-154Б-2 Алма-Атинского ОАО в районе а/п Алма-Ата" [Accident of Tu-154B-2 of Alma-Ata OJSC in the area of Alma-Ata airport]. www.airdisaster.ru (in Russian). Retrieved 2017-04-12.
^ "Туполев Ту-154Б-2 Бортовой №: СССР-85355" [Tupolev Tu-154B-2 Board number: USSR-85355]. russianplanes.net (in Russian). Retrieved 2017-04-12.
^ Gero, David (1996). Aviation Disasters Second Edition. Patrick Stephens Limited. p. 164.