The Tupolev Tu-154 suffered 110 accidents for a total of 2911 fatalities, including 73 hull-losses.
1970s 19 February 1973 Aeroflot Flight 141, a Tu-154 (CCCP-85023), crashed short of the runway while landing at Ruzyne International Airport in Czechoslovakia, following a sudden, unexplained descent, killing 66 of 100 on board in the first fatal accident involving the Tu-154.
7 May 1973 An Aeroflot Tu-154 (CCCP-85030) force-landed in a forest during a training flight on takeoff from Vnukovo Airport, Moscow; the aircraft had taken off with the spoilers deployed, causing severe vibrations and a loss of power in engines one and three; all four crew survived.
10 July 1974 An EgyptAir Tu-154 (SU-AXB, Nefertiti) stalled and crashed near Cairo during a training flight while practicing an overshoot, killing the six crew.
6 August 1974 An Aeroflot Tu-154 (CCCP-85020) was written off due to structural damage following a hard landing at Vnukovo Airport; after a final ferry flight the aircraft was flown to Kyiv and is now preserved in the Ukraine Government Museum of Aviation.
30 September 1975 Malév Flight 240, a Tu-154B-2 (HA-LCI), crashed in the Mediterranean Sea off Beirut for reasons unknown, killing all 60 on board.
1 June 1976 Aeroflot Flight 418, a Tu-154A (CCCP-85102), struck Mount San Carlos on Bioko Island, Equatorial Guinea, killing all 46 on board; the cause was not determined, but radar failure was blamed.
2 December 1977 A Libyan Arab Airlines Tu-154 (LZ-BTN) force-landed near Benghazi, Libya, due to fuel exhaustion while searching for an alternate airport following a diversion due to fog, killing 59 of 165 on board. The aircraft was one of six Tu-154s leased by Libyan Arab Airlines from Balkan Bulgarian Airlines to fly pilgrims to Mecca for the hajj.
18 February 1978 An Aeroflot Tu-154A (CCCP-85087) burned out while parked at Tolmachevo Airport, Novosibirsk, after an oily rag was left on the cabin heater, which had been switched on and left unattended between flights.
23 March 1978 A Balkan Bulgarian Airlines Tu-154 (LZ-BTB) struck high ground on approach to Damascus Airport, Syria, killing the four crew.
19 May 1978 Aeroflot Flight 6709, a Tu-154B (CCCP-85169), crashed in a field near Maksatikha, Kalinin Oblast, Russia, following triple engine failure after the flight engineer accidentally shut off the automatic transferring of fuel of the sump tank, killing four of 134 on board.
14 November 1978 Aeroflot Flight 212, a Tu-154B-1 (CCCP-85286), overran the runway on takeoff from Arlanda Airport, Stockholm, after the crew failed to select the control system's hydraulic pressure; all 74 on board survived. The aircraft was repaired and returned to service.
27 February 1979 Aeroflot Flight 212, a Tu-154, was hijacked by four people shortly after takeoff from Oslo. The hijackers threatened to blow up the aircraft with kerosene-filled glass bottles. The aircraft flew to Stockholm where the hijackers were overpowered by the crew.
30 June 1979 A Chosonminhang Tu-154B (P-551) stalled and landed hard at Ferihegy International Airport, Budapest, due to pilot error; all 70 on board survived. The aircraft was repaired and returned to service.
1979 An Aeroflot Tu-154B (CCCP-85131) was written off following a mercury spill in the cargo hold; the aircraft was used in the shooting of a film (Ekipazh, "crew") after which it was moved to the Krivyi Rih Aeronautical School.
1980s 1 March 1980 Aeroflot Flight 3324, a Tu-154A (CCCP-85103), landed hard at Orenburg Airport and broke in two after deviating from the glide path during the approach; all 161 on board survived.
8 July 1980 Aeroflot Flight 4225, a Tu-154B-2 (CCCP-85355), stalled and crashed shortly after takeoff from Alma-Ata Airport after entering a downdraft, killing all 166 on board. The accident remains the deadliest in Kazakhstan.
7 August 1980 A TAROM Tu-154B-1 (YR-TPH) ditched short of the runway at Nouadhibou Airport due to pilot error, killing one of 168 on board.
8 October 1980 An Aeroflot Tu-154B-2 (CCCP-85321) landed hard at Chita Airport after coming in too high, breaking off the tail section; all 184 on board survived, but the aircraft was obviously written off. The center of gravity was too far forward. photo
13 June 1981 An Aeroflot Tu-154 (CCCP-85029) overran the runway on landing at Bratsk Airport and broke in two, injuring three passengers.
8 September 1981 An Aeroflot Tu-154B-2 (CCCP-85448) burned out during refueling at Tashkent Airport; no casualties.
21 October 1981 Malév Hungarian Airlines Flight 641, a Tu-154B (HA-LCF) landed hard at Ruzyne Airport and broke in two after deploying the spoilers at low altitude following a too-high approach; all 90 on board survived.
16 November 1981 Aeroflot Flight 3603, a Tu-154B-2 (CCCP-85480), crashed short of the runway at Norilsk Airport following a high-speed descent due to pilot error, killing 99 of 167 on board.
27 November 1982 Malév Hungarian Airlines Flight 121, a Tu-154B-2 (HA-LCA), was hijacked by a man posing as a security guard and demanded to be flown to West Berlin. The hijacker was overpowered after being convinced that the aircraft could not reach West Berlin.
11 October 1984 Aeroflot Flight 3352, a Tu-154B-1 (CCCP-85243), struck several maintenance vehicles while landing at Omsk Airport due to ATC errors and crashed, killing 174 of 179 on board and four more in the vehicles; ATC personnel subsequently received prison sentences of 12-15 years. The accident remains the second-deadliest in the Soviet Union with the deadliest being a Tu-154 crash that killed all 200 people on board. The crash of flight 3352 is the third-deadliest when counting Korean Air Lines Flight 007) and the deadliest on Russian soil.
23 December 1984 Aeroflot Flight 3519, a Tu-154B-2 (CCCP-85338), crashed at Krasnoyarsk Airport following double engine failure and in-flight fire, of the 111 on board, only a passenger survived.
10 July 1985 Aeroflot Flight 5143, a Tu-154B-2 (CCCP-85311), stalled and crashed near Uchkuduk due to crew fatigue and crew errors, killing all 200 on board. The accident remains the deadliest in Soviet history, the deadliest in Uzbekistan, and the deadliest involving the Tu-154.
21 May 1986 An Aeroflot Tu-154B-2 (CCCP-85327) suffered structural damage in a high-speed descent after the crew thought the aircraft was going to stall; the aircraft landed safely at Sheremetyevo Airport with no casualties, but the severe stresses (3.2g) placed on the airframe resulted in the aircraft being written-off. The pilots had forgotten to turn on the pitot heating system, causing incorrect airspeed readings.
18 January 1988 Aeroflot Flight 699, a Tu-154B-1 (CCCP-85254), broke in three after a hard landing at Krasnovodsk Airport due to pilot error, killing 11 of 143 on board.
8 March 1988 Aeroflot Flight 3739, a Tu-154B-2 (CCCP-85413), was hijacked by the Ovechkin family, a family of 11 who were attempting to flee the Soviet Union and demanded to be flown to London. The flight engineer persuaded the hijackers to allow a stop in Finland to refuel, but the pilot tricked the hijackers by landing at Veshchevo instead. Realizing they had been tricked, one of the hijackers killed a flight attendant, Tamara Zharkaya. After landing, the aircraft was stormed and another hijacker blew himself up, starting a small fire in the tail that was quickly put out. Four hijackers committed suicide and three passengers also died during the takeover. Two surviving hijackers were tried and received prison sentences.
11 July 1988 China Xinjiang Airlines Flight 9501, went astray due to malfunctioning navigation equipment and was forced to land in a deserted military airfield after running low on fuel. All 11 crew members and 162 passengers were unhurt. Through scrupulous preparation and maintenance work, the aircraft was successfully extricated and returned to service.
24 September 1988 An Aeroflot Tu-154B-2 (CCCP-85479) landed hard at Aleppo Airport following an unstable approach in light turbulence, overrunning the runway and collapsing the landing gear; all 168 on board survived, but the aircraft was written off. The center of gravity was outside limits and the aircraft was out of trim. On the same day an Aeroflot Tu-154M (CCCP-85617) was written off following a hard landing at Norilsk Airport; the aircraft was transferred to Ulyanovsk HFS in 1989 for use as a ground instructional airframe.
13 January 1989 An Aeroflot Tu-154S (CCCP-85067) operating a cargo flight, overran the runway following a rejected takeoff at Roberts International Airport, near Monrovia, Liberia. There were no fatalities amongst the crew, but the aircraft was damaged and written off. The aircraft was overloaded, and the cargo had shifted, causing the center of gravity to move forward.
9 February 1989 A TAROM Tu-154B-2 (YR-TPJ) was simulating an engine failure during a training flight at Otopeni International Airport when it crashed on takeoff after the flaps were raised too soon, killing the five crew.
1990s 20 October 1990 An Aeroflot Tu-154B-1 (CCCP-85268) overran the runway on takeoff at Kutaisi Airport after failing to lift off due to overloading and a too far forward center of gravity; all 171 on board survived, but the aircraft was damaged beyond repair and written off.
17 November 1990 An Aeroflot Tu-154M (CCCP-85664) force-landed and broke apart near Velichovky following a fire in the cargo hold; all six crew survived.
23 May 1991 Aeroflot Flight 8556, a Tu-154B-1 (CCCP-85097), landed hard short of the runway at Pulkovo Airport in rain following excessive descent, killing 13 of 178 on board.
14 September 1991 Cubana Flight 464, a Tu-154B-2 (CU-T1227), overran the runway on landing at Mexico City International Airport after landing too late; all 112 on board survived, but the aircraft was heavily damaged and written off.
5 June 1992 Balkan Bulgarian Airlines Flight 7022, a Tu-154B (LZ-BTD), ran off the runway on landing at Varna Airport in bad weather after landing too late; all 130 on board survived, but the aircraft was written off. The aircraft was operating a charter flight from Stockholm to Varna.
7 June 1992 An Aeroflot Tu-154 was hijacked en route from Grozny to Moscow by a man armed with a hand grenade and demanded to be flown to Turkey. The aircraft continued to Moscow where the hijackers was shot and killed by Russian security. All 115 on board survived.
19 June 1992 Aeroflot Flight 5308, a Tu-154B-1 (CCCP-85234), made a refueling stop at Bratsk Airport but was grounded by maintenance issues after which everyone on board disembarked the aircraft. That night, another Aeroflot Tu-154B-1 (CCCP-85282) operating Flight 2889 also stopped at Bratsk to refuel. Ten passengers remained on board this Tu-154 with the pilot's permission while the remaining 120 left the aircraft and went to the terminal. Two tankers were connected by a hose and began refueling CCCP-85282, but in the process the hose disconnected from the receiver of the main tanker. Fuel poured out onto the exhaust manifold of the engine operating the pump, starting a fire. The pumps could not be shut down and fuel continued to pour out. A few minutes later, CCCP-85282 caught fire, followed by CCCP-85234. The fire could not be extinguished and both aircraft burned out. The truck driver drove the burning tankers away from the scene, but he suffered severe burns and later died of his injuries. All on board CCCP-85282 escaped the fire and survived. The hose had disconnected due to errors made by the operator, who was drunk.
20 July 1992 A Tbilisi Aviation Enterprise Tu-154B (4L-85222) crashed shortly after takeoff from Novo Alexeyevka Airport due to overloading and a too far forward center of gravity, killing all 24 on board and four more on the ground.
1 August 1992