Transportno Aviatsionno Bulgaro-Savetsko Obedinenie - TABSO | Bureau of Aircraft Accidents Archives

The four engine aircraft was completing a charter flight from Berlin to Burgas with an intermediate stop in Sofia, carrying 80 East-German tourists who were flying on holidays to Burgas, on the shore of the Black Sea. While descending to Burgas, the crew encountered poor weather conditions with low clouds, rain falls and thunderstorm activity. On final, the four engine aircraft was too low, struck obstacles and crashed in flames few hundred meters short of runway threshold. Five crew members and 42 passengers were killed while 39 other occupants were injured. The aircraft was totally destroyed.

Probable cause:

The crew apparently took the decision to continue the approach under VFR mode in IMC conditions. In violation to the published procedures, the crew descended below the glide and continued the final approach at an insufficient altitude, causing the aircraft to struck obstacles and to crash.

Crash of an Ilyushin II-18 in Bratislava: 82 killed

Date & Time: Nov 24, 1966 at 1630 LT

Type of aircraft:

Ilyushin II-18

Operator:

Registration:

LZ-BEN

Flight Phase:

Takeoff (climb)

Flight Type:

Scheduled Revenue Flight

Survivors:

Site:

Airport (less than 10 km from airport)

Schedule:

Sofia - Budapest - Prague - Berlin

MSN:

184 0071 01

YOM:

1964

Flight number:

LZ101

Location:

Bratislava-Ivanka-Milan Rastislav Štefánik

Bratislava Region

Country:

Slovakia

Region:

Europe

Crew on board:

Crew fatalities:

Pax on board:

Pax fatalities:

Other fatalities:

Total fatalities:

Captain / Total flying hours:

11959

Captain / Total hours on type:

2002.00

Copilot / Total flying hours:

5979

Copilot / Total hours on type:

768

Circumstances:

Flight LZ101 was a scheduled international air service from Sofia to Berlin with intermediate stops in Budapest and Prague. The four engine airplane departed Budapest-Ferihegy Airport at 1146LT bound for Prague, but en route, the crew was informed the airport of Prague-Ruzyne was closed to all traffic due to poor weather conditions. So the crew decided to divert to Bratislava-Ivanka Airport where he landed at 1258LT. About 1550 hours the pilot-in-command of the aircraft decided to resume his flight to Prague. He took off from Bratislava Airport at 1628:30. After take-off he made a turn to starboard according to the flight clearance with the instruction to perform a right turn on to the OKR Beacon, to climb only to 300 m and then to climb on to the NI beacon up to the flight level of 5 100 m. At 1630:20 hours the flight was requested to change to the ATC approach service frequency, 120.9 Mc/s. The crew confirmed reception of this message, but they did not carry out the retuning. Shortly afterwards the aircraft crashed into wooded ground in the mountains. The accident occurred 8 km away from the 31 runway threshold of Bratislava Airport at an altitude of 420 m above MSL, i.e. 288 m above the airport level. The aircraft was totally destroyed and none of the 82 occupants survived the crash.

Probable cause:

The Commission could not definitely establish the cause of accident. The Commission assumed that the most probable cause of the accident was insufficient evaluation of terrain relief and weather conditions in the Bratislava Airport control zone by the aircraft crew and lack of adaptation of the flight to these conditions. There are serious reasons to doubt whether the crew thoroughly evaluated the geographical and meteorological situation and drew from this evaluation the necessary conclusions in choosing the take-off runway, in accepting the flight clearance and in performing the takeoff and the departure by making a turn to the starboard on to the OKR beacon. The possibility must be admitted that the non-maintenance of the 15° bank and the 400 km/h speed (or the lowest possible limit of 360 km/h), which non-maintenance had a causal connexion with the accident, could be partly due also to errors in controlling and navigating the aircraft.

Final Report:

Crash of a Lisunov LI-2P on Mt Vezhen: 30 killed

Date & Time: Nov 22, 1952 at 0830 LT

Type of aircraft:

Lisunov LI-2

Operator:

Registration:

LZ-TUE

Flight Phase:

Flight

Flight Type:

Scheduled Revenue Flight

Survivors:

Site:

Mountains

Schedule:

Sofia – Gorna Oryahovitsa – Varna

MSN:

184 323 03

YOM:

1947

Location:

Country:

Region:

Crew on board:

Crew fatalities:

Pax on board:

Pax fatalities:

Other fatalities:

Total fatalities:

Circumstances:

While cruising in poor weather conditions, the twin engine aircraft hit the slope of Mt Vezhen (2,198 meters high) located in the Stara Planina Mountain Range. The wreckage was found few hours later, about 20 meters below the summit, and all 30 occupants have been killed. At the time of the accident, the visibility was nil due to heavy snow falls and the crew was unable to distinguish the mountain.

Probable cause:

After takeoff from Sofia Airport, the crew was supposed to follow a circuit of 15 km around the capital city to gain the minimum altitude of 1,500 meters before proceeding to the northeast. Apparently to save time and fuel, the crew decided to ignore this procedure and proceeded directly to the northeast after departure, causing the aircraft to approach the mountain range at an insufficient altitude. Low visibility caused by poor weather conditions was considered as a contributory factor.