Draft:1977 Prague-Ruzyně Runway collision

1977 Prague-Ruzyně collision

Accident
Date	2. January 1977
Summary	Runway collision, ATC error
Site	Praha-Ruzyne International Airport, Runway 31
Total fatalities	0
Total survivors	64 (All)
First aircraft
Tu-134 similiar to accident aircraft
Type	Tupolev Tu-134A
Operator	ČSA (Československé Státní Aerolinie)
Registration	OK-CFD
Flight origin	Leningrad
Destination	Praha-Ruzyne International Airport, Czechoslovakia
Passengers	43
Crew	6
Fatalities	0
Injuries	3+
Survivors	49 (All)
Second aircraft
CSA IL-18 similiar to accident aircraft
Type	Ilyushin IL-18B
Name	Piešťany
Operator	ČSA (Československé Státní Aerolinie)
Registration	OK-NAA
Flight origin	Praha-Ruzyne International Airport, Czechoslovakia
Destination	Bratislava-Ivanka International Airport, Czechoslovakia
Passengers	unknown
Crew	unknown
Fatalities	0
Injuries	0
Survivors	15 (All)

ČSA flight 897 with 48 passengers and crew on board crashed at Prague-Ruzyně airport during landing with a waiting Ilyushin IL-18B on runway 31. No one was killed in the accident. The incident happened in poor visibility during normalization times, so the accident was very well covered up. The accident was caused by a shift change of dispatchers, who did not decide which planes to guide.

Involved Aircrafts

The first aircraft involved in the crash was a Tupolev Tu-134A, registration OK-CFD, serial number 2351505, manufactured in early 1972. It was delivered to the airline on March 10, 1972. The aircraft operated the Leningrad-Prague route, which had the number 897. It was the fourth Tu-134 delivered into ČSA. Aircraft wasn't nickednamed. The plane was piloted by captain Jirounek (name unknown), co-pilot Miroslav Sedlák (46), and the unnamed navigator.

The second participating aircraft was an Ilyushin Il-18B, registration OK-NAA, serial number 189001604, named Ostrava, later Piešťany, nicknamed Anička by the pilots, which was manufactured in 1959 and entered the airline on 8.1. 1960. It was the first Ilyushin Il-18 assigned to the ČSA. The crew of the Ilyushin is unknown except for the flight engineer Jiří Hrubý. Ilyushin carried 15 people on board, however, it is difficult to trace who is the passenger and who is the crew.

Accident

A Tu-134 flying from Leningrad was preparing to land on Runway 31, which was equipped with ILS, which was handy since it was dark, foggy, and snowing. Meanwhile, the crew of IL-18 headed to Bratislava requested to taxi to runway 31, which was granted by the controllers. However, in the meantime, the shift started to change and the landing Tupolev was somehow forgotten. Tupolev spoke to the controller and asked if he could land on runway 31, and the controller said yes. Meanwhile, the Tupolev crew was busy with the landing check. Ilyushin had just reached runway 31 and was waiting for permission to take off. First Officer Sedlák, piloting a Tupolev in the clouds just before the airport, was preparing for final approach. He turned off the autopilot, meanwhile the navigator noticed the Ilyushin Il-18, which was facing them back, preparing for takeoff.

After the whole crew noticed him, 1st Officer Sedlák immediately raised his control rams while the captain increased the power of the engines, the slow-flying Tu-134 reacted relatively slowly and hit part of the Ilyushin's rudder with its right wing. It then dropped for a while and finally went down with its right wing just off Runway 31, skidding about a kilometer with the left wing and the nose wing and one of the main landing gear damaged. At the impact, Ilyushin rose slightly, then fell hard. No one aboard the Ilyushin was injured. A few people on board were injured in Tupolev, surprisingly, no one died.

The crew of the Ilyushin immediately reported trouble, but thought they were having trouble with the landing gear. The flight engineer Hrubý himself said that he saw a piece of something flying at him on the runway, but he thought it was a bag of cement. However, when mechanics on the ground told him that part of the rudder was missing, the crew called the tower and told them of the incident. Initially, the tower did not believe the crew and said that it was perhaps a ''NEW YEAR'S EVE joke'', however, it sent emergency services to Ilyushin. Nobody still knew about the crashed Tupolev at the end of the runway. Meanwhile, the passengers and crew of the Tu-134 are trying to get out of the wreckage, which surprisingly did not catch fire. Passengers and crew waited in the cold and darkness for emergency services to arrive for more than 20 minutes before the first ambulance and fire trucks arrived. Meanwhile, some passengers from Tupolev started going to the terminal for help. Unfortunately, no one believed them.

OK-NAA after accident, notice severely damaged rudder

Investigation

An investigation began soon after the accident. In addition to the air accident investigators, they were joined by the StB, which collected some political evidence and interrogated the passengers and crew. The accident was not allowed to be discussed and none of the pilots or flight attendants were awarded for this reason, although the crew of the Tupolev performed amazingly. The investigation also showed weaknesses in the communication system between dispatchers. Just before the accident, the shift was changing, and the previous shift had forgotten to mention the landing tupolev to their colleagues. Several dispatchers were given suspended sentences and their qualifications were revoked.

Legacy

This not very known accident was very similar to the one in Tenerife two months later, which went down in history as the worst aviation disaster in history, killing 583 people on board both planes. Tupolev was uneconomical to repair, so it was written off after the incident and scrapped in 1980. Ilyushin, albeit with severe damage to the rudder, was repaired and returned to service by the end of 1977. On February 16, 1979, the aircraft was decommissioned and donated to the museum at the Kbely airport, where it remains to this day and gradually decays.

OK-NAA, involved aircraft at Kbely Airport Museum, 2023.

In popular culture

The accident was in the episode of the ČT documentary series Osudové okamžiky called "Ruzyně 1977", where the stewards from Tuplev, First Officer Sedlák (also from Tupolev) and flight engineer Hrubý from Ilyushin offered an interview.