page_title: Aeroflot Flight 68
section_title: Accident
hierarchical_section_title: Aeroflot Flight 68 / Accident
caption_attribution_description: Used blade of a en:General Electric J79 aero engine of a Lockheed F-104 "Starfighter"
context_page_description: Aeroflot Flight 68 was a regularly scheduled passenger flight operated by Aeroflot from Khabarovsk Novy Airport in Khabarovsk Krai to Pulkovo Airport in Saint Petersburg with intermediate stops at Tolmachevo Airport in Ob, Russia, then Koltsovo Airport in Yekaterinburg. On 16 March 1961, the Tupolev Tu-104B operating this flight crashed shortly after take off from Koltsovo Airport. Three passengers and two crewmembers were killed along with two people on the ground.
  The Air Accident Investigation Commission concluded the cause of the accident was the failure of engine No. 2 due a broken turbine blade.
context_section_description: After takeoff from Koltsovo Airport while climbing though 140 meters altitude as the crew reduced the engine power from takeoff setting, engine No. 2 began vibrating severely.
  The crew was uncertain which engine was failing and were unable to use the engine instruments because the instrument panel was vibrating violently. A crew member decided to reduce power on engine No. 1 in an attempt to determine if it was the source of the shaking, but he inadvertently pulled the throttle lever too far back, shutting down that engine. With neither engine operating the airliner began descending rapidly and the crew decided there was not enough altitude to restart engine No. 1.
  Searching for a suitable place to set down, the crew choose to make an emergency landing on a frozen pond 9,200 meters from the airport. Turning 90 degrees to the right and descending the crew lined up for the landing at a high speed with the flaps and landing gear retracted.
  Passing beneath an overhead power line and severing it with the vertical stabilizer the Tupolev first struck the ice with its left wing tip, then crashed down on the ice traveling 870 meters before reaching the shore. Still moving at speed, the aircraft struck trees near the shore and continued on, destroying part of the ground floor of a two-story vacation home, killing two people inside.
  Most of the right wing was torn from the aircraft and remained in the home. Simultaneously the left wing struck another home, tearing off half the wing and causing the home's complete destruction. The aircraft continued on, striking more trees, and came to a halt 350 meters from the pond and 1,220 meters from the initial contact with the ice. There was no fire and the fuselage broke into three main pieces, remaining close together at the crash site.
caption: An example of a turbojet turbine blade. The blade of the accident aircraft fractured at its root, shown here at the bottom of this image
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