On March 23, 1994, another routine flight was supposed to occur between Moscow and Hong Kong. The pilot of the Airbus A310-304, Yaroslav Kudrinsky, let his two children inside the flight deck. The boy, Eldar, and his sister, Yana, were allowed at the controls while on the flight to Hong Kong.
The father set the plane on autopilot. His plan was to only give the children the feeling that they were controlling the plane; he thought he could safely remain in control the entire time.
When the boy was playing, he accidentally disabled the autopilot settings. The aircraft shot down in a nosedive at an angle steeper than 45 degrees. The first officer tried to correct the problem and prevent disaster but failed.
63 passengers and 12 crew members died when the plane crashed into a hill in the Alatau mountain range of South-Central Russia. Within two hours, a search was begun to find the wreckage. There was still hope that survivors could be found.
Many wondered if terrorists were behind the crash, but that possibility was eliminated thanks to the voice recorder in the cockpit.
Pictured here is the very same plane that crashed.
