The Tupolev Tu-134 has been involved in 76 hull-loss accidents for a total of 1387 fatalities.
1960s 14 January 1966 The second prototype Tu-134 (CCCP-45076) crashed near Chkalovsky Airport during trials with the NII VVS after entering a dive following a turn, killing all eight on board. This was the first fatal crash of a Tupolev Tu-134 and also the first hull loss of the aircraft. 7 October 1969 A Malév Hungarian Airlines Tu-134 (HA-LBC) with 53 people on board sustained substantial damage when landing at Amsterdam Airport Schiphol after the right hand landing gear retracted. There were no casualties, and the aircraft was repaired and returned to service. However, eight years later in September 1977 this aircraft was involved in another accident with a less fortunate outcome. 19 November 1969 A Malév Hungarian Airlines Tu-134 (HA-LBA) overran the runway on landing at Yesilköy Airport, collapsing the landing gear. There were no casualties, but on this occasion the aircraft was written off due to the damage incurred.
1970s 23 May 1971 Aviogenex Flight 130, a Tu-134A (YU-AHZ), landed hard and crashed at Rijeka Airport in bad weather, killing 78 of 83 on board.
16 September 1971 Malév Hungarian Airlines Flight 110, a Tu-134 (HA-LBD), crashed near Boryspil International Airport in fog, following two aborted approaches after generator failure forced the crew to switch to batteries, killing all 49 on board.
8 July 1972 An Aeroflot Tu-134 (CCCP-65604) burned out while parked at Murmansk Airport, when a bleaching agent spilled in the luggage compartment after the suitcase it was stored in was dropped.
17 July 1972 A GosNII GA (Gosudarstvenny Issledovatelny Institut Grazhdanskoi Aviatsii, State Research Institute of Civil Aviation) Tu-134A (CCCP-65607) ditched in the Moscow Channel near Sheremetyevo Airport after both engines failed due to fuel exhaustion when the crew had forgotten to turn on the transfer pumps in time; although the aircraft was salvaged, it was written off and used as a rescue trainer until it was broken up around 2001.
30 October 1972 An Interflug Tu-134 (DM-SCA) landed hard at Berlin Schönefeld Airport in bad weather and ran off the side of the runway; the aircraft was ferried to the Soviet Union but was not repaired and was written off instead.
30 June 1973 Aeroflot Flight 512, a Tu-134A (CCCP-65668), overran the runway on takeoff from Marka International Airport, Amman, Jordan, following an aborted takeoff when the pilot thought an engine had failed, killing two of 85 on board; seven on the ground also died when the aircraft struck a building. The aircraft was damaged beyond repair and written off.
1 September 1975 Interflug Flight 1107, a Tu-134 (DM-SCD), descended prematurely, struck the Locator Middle Marker radio mast at Leipzig/Halle Airport and crashed after the pilot failed to check descent rate during the approach, killing 27 of 34 on board; the crew subsequently received prison sentences.
2 January 1977 While landing at Prague Ruzyne Airport, a CSA Czechoslovak Airlines Tu-134 (OK-CFD) collided with a CSA Ilyushin Il-18 (OK-NAA) that was taking off and veered off the runway; all 48 on board survived. The Tu-134 was written off, but the Il-18 was repaired and returned to service, flying until 1981. Prague Ruzyne airport is now known as Václav Havel Airport Prague.
2 April 1977 An Aviogenex Tu-134A (YU-AJS) crashed on landing at Libreville airport, Gabon, killing all eight people on board.
21 September 1977 Malév Flight 203, a Tu-134 (HA-LBC), struck level ground four miles southwest of Urziceni while on approach to Bucharest Otopeni Airport, killing 32 of 56 on board. The aircraft was being flown at reduced power and had a miscalibrated barometric altimeter, causing the crew to overestimate the aircraft's altitude.
22 November 1977 Interflug Flight 601, a Tu-134A (DM-SCM), landed hard at Schönefeld Airport after the pilot was unable to turn off the autopilot before landing; all 79 on board survived despite the substantial damage caused to the aircraft, which included the left wing being torn off.
16 March 1978 A Balkan Bulgarian Airlines Tu-134 (LZ-TUB) crashed near a small village (Gabare), approximately south of Byala Slatina, Bulgaria. On a flight from Sofia to Warsaw, the aircraft was climbing through but then started flying erratically, descending rapidly and crashing shortly afterwards, killing all 73 on board. The exact circumstances have not been made public. The crash remains the deadliest in Bulgaria.
30 August 1978 LOT Polish Airlines Flight 165 (1978), a Tu-134 (SP-LGC), was hijacked by two people from East Germany. Forced by the hijackers, the plane landed in Tempelhof Airport. No one was injured among the 69 occupants.
22 March 1979 An Aeroflot Tu-134A (CCCP-63501) on a cargo flight, struck trees and crashed while landing at night and in bad weather at Liepāja International Airport, Latvia, killing four of five crew. The accident was caused by a combination of factors including the weather conditions, poor visibility, and also because the aircraft was overloaded with cargo and the center of gravity was too far forward.
19 May 1979 An Aeroflot Tu-134A (CCCP-65839) landed at Ufa Airport, Bashkortostan, with the landing gear brakes on. The tyres failed together with the left main undercarriage, causing the aircraft to leave the runway. A fuel tank ruptured, and a fire broke out. The aircraft was written off, but there were no fatalities recorded and all 89 on board survived.
31 May 1979 An Aeroflot Tu-134A (CCCP-65649) burned out following a hydraulic system fire after a landing gear wheel blew due to overheating during a training flight; no casualties.
11 August 1979 Two Aeroflot Tu-134s (CCCP-65816 and CCCP-65735) collided in mid-air near Dniprodzerzhynsk (now Kamianske) because of ATC errors, killing all 178 on board both aircraft.
1980s 23 January 1980 A LOT Polish Airlines Tu-134 (SP-LGB, Wladyslaw Reymont) overran the runway on landing at Okecie airport (now known as Warsaw Chopin Airport); the aircraft was written off but no fatalities were recorded.
6 January 1981 An Aeroflot Tu-134B (CCCP-65698) was on a repositioning flight from Sukhumi Babushara Airport to Sochi when it left the runway on landing at Sochi following an unstable approach, and landing with brakes locked; the aircraft was written off but no fatalities were recorded.
28 June 1981 An Aeroflot Tu-134A (CCCP-65871) caught fire after a damaged tire failed and punctured a fuel tank while landing at Simferopol, Crimea, Ukraine. The aircraft had arrived from Kyiv Boryspil Airport where it had earlier performed a rejected takeoff, placing a heavy load on, and overheating, some of the tires. It then continued to Simferopol where at least one of the tires failed on landing. The aircraft was written off due to the resulting fire, but there are no details of persons on board or casualties.
17 June 1982 A Tu-134IK (CCCP-65687) operated by the Ministry of Radio Equipment Production as a flying ASW systems testbed crashed near Severomorsk-1 Naval Air Station after it struck a guy wire of a radio mast; of the 16 on board, only the pilot survived. The pilot ignored warnings from the GPWS, ATC and navigators that he was descending too fast.
14 August 1982 Aeroflot Flight 974, a Tu-134A (CCCP-65836), collided on the runway at Babusheri Airport, Abkhazia, Georgia, with an Aeroflot Let L-410M (CCCP-67191) operating as Flight G-73, killing all 11 on board the L-410; none of the 82 on board the Tu-134 were injured.
18 February 1983 A CSA Tu-134 was hijacked between Poprad and Prague, both at that time in Czechoslovakia, by a passenger who attacked a stewardess and attempted to enter the cockpit. He then threatened to blow up the aircraft. After refusing to surrender to security personnel on board, the hijacker was shot and later died of his injuries.
17 June 1983 An Aeroflot Tu-134A (CCCP-65657) encountered turbulence over Gali, Georgia en route to Yerevan, Armenia from Lvov (now Lviv), Ukraine; although the aircraft was able to land safely at Yerevan, it had suffered severe structural damage and was written off and used for fire tests during the investigation into the crash of Tu-134AK CCCP-65120 on 2 July 1986.
5 July 1983 While en route from Moscow to Tallinn, a passenger on board an Aeroflot aircraft, probably a Tu-134, told a flight attendant that a bomb was on board and his companion would detonate it unless they were flown to London or Oslo. The hijackers agreed to a refueling stop in Kotka, Finland, but the crew landed at Leningrad instead. When a hijacker realized they had been tricked, he shouted to the other to blow up the plane. Security guards boarded the plane, shooting and killing one hijacker and arresting the other.
30 August 1983 Aeroflot Flight 5463, a Tu-134A (CCCP-65129), struck the side of Dolan Mountain after the crew began descending too soon during the approach to Alma-Ata (now Almaty), Kazakhstan, killing all 90 on board.
18 November 1983 Shortly after taking off from Tbilisi, Georgia, Aeroflot Flight 6833, a Tu-134A (CCCP-65807), was hijacked by seven people attempting to flee the Soviet Union. The pilots performed sharp maneuvers to keep the hijackers off balance. The hijackers were forced out of the cockpit and instead of conceding to the hijackers demands, the pilot circled Tbilisi and later landed. On the following day, 19 November, the aircraft was stormed by Alpha Group who arrested the surviving hijackers, but the attack killed three passengers, two crew and two hijackers. The aircraft received 108 bullet holes during the attack and was written off due to airframe deformation during the maneuvers. Four of the hijackers received the death penalty and were shot on 3 October 1984; a female co-conspirator received a 14 year prison sentence.
10 January 1984 A Balkan Bulgarian Airlines Tu-134A (LZ-TUR) crashed short of the runway at Sofia Airport while attempting an overshoot after coming in too low, killing all 50 on board.Accident description for LZ-TUR at the Aviation Safety Network. Retrieved on 21 January 2025.
25 May 1984 Soviet Air Force Tu-134Sh2 02 lost control, broke up in mid-air and crashed near Donetsk, killing all seven on board. Two wires to the backup yaw damper had been connected backwards.
1984 An Aeroflot Tu-134A (CCCP-65095) burned out at ARZ-407 at Minsk-1 International Airport; no casualties.
1 February 1985 Aeroflot Flight 7841, a Tu-134AK (CCCP-65910), force-landed in a forest shortly after takeoff from Minsk-2 International Airport after both engines failed due to ice ingestion, killing 58 of 80 on board. The aircraft may have been improperly de-iced after sitting for seven days in below-zero temperatures.
3 May 1985 A mid-air collision involving Aeroflot Flight 8381, a Tu-134A (CCCP-65856), and a Soviet Air Force Antonov An-26 (identified both as CCCP-26492, and 101 red), occurred at FL130 near Zolochiv, in western Ukraine, because of ATC errors, killing all 94 on both aircraft.
22 June 1986 An Aeroflot Tu-134A (CCCP-65142) overran the runway at Penza Airport, southeast of Moscow, following a late rejected takeoff due to low thrust and a spurious number two engine vibration warning. Unable to stop in time, the aircraft continued into a ravine and was written off; one passenger (of 59 on board) died of a heart attack.
2 July 1986 Aeroflot Flight 2306, a Tu-134AK (CCCP-65120), made a force-landing in a forest 80 km southwest of Syktyvkar, following an in-flight fire, killing 54 of 92 on board.
20 September 1986