The chilling last words of a pilot who let children fly his aircraft before it crashed and killed everyone onboard were captured on a black box recording.
Aeroflot flight 593 was carrying 75 passengers from Moscow to Hong Kong on March 23, 1994, when disaster struck.
The audio tape showed how relief pilot Yaroslav Vladimirovich Kudrinsky had recklessly allowed his children, Yana, 12, and Eldar, 16, into the cockpit shortly before the plane plunged to the ground in Siberia.
Despite autopilot being turned on, meaning the plane couldn’t be controlled by the teenagers, when it was Eldar’s turn to take the reins he ended up switching it off by pushing the controls too hard.
This meant he was suddenly fully in control of the aircraft’s movements and had the lives of everyone onboard in his hands.
An audio recording captured the moment pilots realised something was wrong as the plane began to veer to the right.
But, by that point, the aircraft had already swerved at almost a 90-degree angle – a move that the Airbus A310 aircraft can’t handle.
Aeroflot Flight 593 was carrying 75 passengers from Moscow to Hong Kong on March 23, 1994, when disaster struck
A black box recording showed that relief pilot Yaroslav Vladimirovich Kudrinsky had allowed his children, Yana, 12, and Eldar, 16, into the cockpit shortly before the plane plunged to the ground in Siberia. Mr Kudrinsky can be heard saying, ‘Go to the back! Go to the back, Eldar!’ before he shouts, ‘You see the danger, don’t you?’
But, by that point, the aircraft had already swerved at almost a 90-degree angle – a move that the Airbus A310 aircraft can’t handle
The plane started to rapidly descend before stalling and automatically switching into a dive to recover itself.
The three pilots wrestled with the controls and managed to pull the plane out of the dive but misjudged the force and it stalled once more.
Mr Kudrinsky can be heard saying, ‘Go to the back! Go to the back, Eldar!’ before he shouts, ‘You see the danger, don’t you?’
He then tries to reassure the children by downplaying the danger telling them, ‘Get out now! All is normal’.
But, this couldn’t be further from the truth, as the situation has become unsalvageable.
The recording then cuts out as the plane ploughs into the Kuznetsk Alatau mountain range at around 160mph.
Investigations into the crash found no evidence of technical failure, and believed it was most likely caused by the children being allowed to take control of the flight.
Tragically it later emerged that if the three pilots onboard had left the recovery up to the autopilot, rather than attempting to fix the problem manually, the issue would have resolved itself and all the passengers would have survived.
