Balkan Bulgarian Airlines

After takeoff from Sofia-Vrazhdebna Airport, the crew informed ATC about an unexpected situation and was cleared to return for an emergency landing. Control was lost from an altitude of 4,900 meters and the aircraft entered a spin and crashed in an open field located near the village of Gabare. The aircraft was totally destroyed and all 73 occupants were killed.

The aircraft was completing a charter flight from Mecca to Tripoli with an intermediate stop in Benghazi, carrying Libyan pilgrims flying back home. While descending to Benghazi Airport, the crew was instructed by ATC to divert to Al Bayda as the airport was closed due to foggy conditions. In the area of Al Bayda, the crew was unable to locate the airport due to fog and completed several circuits when the airplane ran out of fuel. The pilot-in-command attempted an emergency landing in a desert area located few km from Al Bayda Airport when the aircraft crashed. 59 passengers were killed while 46 others occupants were injured and 60 escaped uninjured.

For unknown reason, the four engine aircraft landed hard. After touchdown, it was unable to stop within the remaining distance, overran and came to rest. All five crew members escaped uninjured while the aircraft was damaged beyond repair. The exact date remains unknown but the accident occurred during December 1975.

While parked on apron at Sofia-Vrazhdebna Airport, the airplane was deiced and the snow was removed before the crew was cleared to taxi to runway 10 for takeoff. However, the runway was closed for snow removal. When this was done, the crew was cleared for takeoff and just after liftoff from runway 10, the airplane encountered difficulties to gain height, stalled and crashed on a bank of the Iskar River located by the airport. The copilot was killed and two passengers drowned. All other occupants were rescued, some of them were injured.

During an approach to Moscow-Sheremetyevo Airport in marginal weather conditions, the crew initiated a go-around for unknown reason. During the second approach, at a distance of 5 km from the runway 07 threshold, the crew was informed by ATC that his position was 15 meters below the glide. Shortly later, the airplane nosed down then crashed in a huge explosion 4,330 meters short of runway. The aircraft disintegrated on impact and all 25 occupants were killed.

During the preflight briefing, the crew was informed about poor weather conditions in Sofia and that the visibility was below minima. The airplane departed Burgas Airport at 1901LT and en route, the captain decided to divert to Plovdiv where weather conditions were considered as better. First radio contact with approach control in Plovdiv was established at 1950LT and the crew was cleared to descent. Twelve minutes later, while descending by night and limited visibility, the airplane struck the slope of a mountain located in the Rhodopes Mountain Range, near the city Smolyan. The wreckage was found few hours later about 56 km southwest of Plovdiv Airport. All 35 occupants have been killed.

Just after liftoff, while climbing by night to a height of 8 meters, the airplane banked left, causing the left wing to struck the runway surface. Out of control, the airplane crashed in flames in a grassy area located on the left side of the runway. Among the debris scattered on a distance of 400 meters, 45 injured people were evacuated while 28 others were killed, among them two crew members and the Bulgarian singer Pacha Hristova who was travelling to Algeria with members of the Bulgarian folklorik band 'Aura'.

In the afternoon, the airplane departed Paris on flight LZ130 to Sofia, carrying 39 passengers and a crew of eight. While cruising at its assigned altitude vertical to Luxeuil VOR, the captain requested to ATC the permission to divert to Zurich-Kloten Airport. The reason for this rerouting was unknown. The crew was cleared to change his route and continued over south of West Germany before starting a descent to Zurich. The approach to runway 16 at Zurich-Kloten was initiated in poor weather conditions with fog reducing the horizontal visibility to 600 meters and the vertical visibility to 60 meters. On final, the left main gear and the left wing tip struck the ground. The airplane gain a little height then struck the ground, lost its four engines and crashed in flames about 700 meters short of runway threshold, slightly out from the approach path. The aircraft was totally destroyed by impact forces and a post crash fire and only two occupants survived the accident, the captain and a boy aged 12. All 45 other occupants were killed. The occupants were respectively 14 West German, 12 Bulgarian (among them 8 crew members), 9 French, 4 Syrians, 2 Lebanese, one Brazilian, one Dutch, one Argentinian, one Austrian, one Finnish and one British.