On August 11, 1979, a Tu-134 with tail number 65735 took off from Tashkent Airport on the Guryev-Donetsk-Minsk route. There were 84 people on board, including 12 children and 17 representatives of the Uzbek football club Pakhtakor. The team was heading to Minsk for a match of the USSR Major League Championship against the local football club Dynamo. At 13:11, flight 7880 took off from Donetsk Airport and, after gaining altitude, reached an altitude of 5,700 meters.
Another Tu-134 with tail number 65816 was flying on the Chelyabinsk-Voronezh-Chisinau route. At 12:54 it took off from Voronezh.
At 13:35:38 near the city of Dneprodzerzhinsk, in the area of responsibility of the South-Western sector of the Kharkov RC EC ATC, the planes collided. The tragedy occurred at the intersection of the Dnepropetrovsk-Kremenchug and Magdalinovka-Dneprodzerzhinsk highways in the clouds, at an altitude of 8,400 m.
The planes collided at an angle of 95°. The cockpit of Tu-134A No. 65816 collided with the right wing of Tu-134A No. 65735 approaching from the left. Both cars began to spin around their vertical axes and collided with their tail sections…
At 13:37, the pilot of an An-2 aircraft flying from Cherkasy to Donetsk reported to the ground: “Something is falling from the sky!”
The investigation into the worst plane crash in the Soviet Union was conducted in the strictest secrecy. Twenty-year-old air traffic controller Nikolai Zhukovsky, who worked in this position for only a few months, as well as his boss, 28-year-old Vladimir Sumsky, were found guilty of the plane crash.
Below is an excerpt from the transcript of conversations between dispatchers and crews:
“Dispatcher Zhukovsky: 816, proceed to 8400 Krasnograd.
Moldovan Tu-134: I understand you, but 9600 is not possible?
Zhukovsky: Not yet, tailwind over Krasnograd at 9600.
Moldovan Tu-134: I understand you, I’m saving 8400
Moldovan Tu-134: We have a 55 km advance range at 9600, let us set it at 9600.
Zhukovsky: 816, pass Krasnograd, we’ll see.
Moldovan Tu-134: Good.”
Nine minutes later, following the dispatcher’s instructions, a Belarusian ship rises to the height of the Moldovan plane and follows it towards it…
Conclusions of the commission investigating the plane crash: the cause was errors and violations of the requirements of the GA-78 nuclear power plant committed by the southwest sector controller and the instructor-controller regarding the assignment of flight levels and ensuring the established intervals between aircraft, compliance with the rules of radio phraseology.
Both dispatchers were sent to prison for fifteen years. Vladimir Sumsky was released after six and a half years for good behaviour. According to some reports, Zhukovsky committed suicide in prison.
