Landed blindly - killed 70 people: the most idiotical plane crash in the USSR

Sergey Zhilin tells about this tragedy in the public "History in 1 photo":

“On October 20, 1986, the Tu-134, assigned to the Grozny squadron, flew along the Sverdlovsk - Kuibyshev - Grozny route. Even before the flight, the commander of the aircraft, Alexander Klyuyev, argued with the co-pilot Gennady Zhirnov that he would be able to land the plane blindly, only by instruments. Before landing in Kurumoch (Kuibyshev, now Samara, ed.) Klyuyev closed the cockpit windows with curtains and proceeded to land. As a result, the plane came into contact with the landing strip at too high a speed and at too high an angle. The landing gear broke, the plane began to slide along the strip with its belly, falling apart on the move, and, in the end, breaking the wing, turned over.

The airport rescue team, which immediately responded, began to pull passengers out of the burning cabin. During landing, everyone in the cockpit survived. Three flight attendants were burned alive. They, as expected, were in their compartment when landing. But there was also an oxygen cylinder, which exploded. The commander, navigator and flight mechanic were in shock and did not take any action. The co-pilot took an active part in the rescue of passengers, was poisoned by combustion products (according to other testimonies, his heart failed) and died on the way to the hospital.

Of the 87 passengers on board, 27 people were removed from the cabin, but 6 of them later died in the hospital. The total number of victims was 70 people, including 14 children. According to stories, a recidivist prisoner was transported on the plane. He got out of the car in handcuffs on his own, but did not run away, but stood aside and waited to be remembered.

The engineer of the test fire laboratory V. Frygin, who arrived with the firefighters, began to photograph the whole picture of the disaster (this should be done for the subsequent investigation). However, who arrived as promptly as the firefighters, the KGB officers soon noticed him and demanded to give the camera with the film. Fortunately, Frygin noticed that they were looking closely at him, and managed to replace the cassette in the apparatus and give it to one of the firefighters. Thanks to him, photographic evidence of the disaster has been preserved, including this picture.

After the investigation, Klyuyev's guilt was irrefutably established. He received 15 years in prison (in my opinion, the maximum term under the then legislation). After his repeated appeals to the courts, the case was reviewed and the term was reduced to 6 years. Klyuyev served the term completely and was released in 1994. Then his traces are lost.