​​Children at the control wheel and crash of Airbus A310 in Russia, 1994

Part 1

This disaster occurred not far from the author's hometown, so it was very well imprinted in his memory.

On March 23, 1994, Aeroflot's Airbus A310 performed a flight from Moscow to Hong Kong. Flying in the Novokuznetsk area, it suddenly started to fall from an altitude of more than 10 kilometers. It wasn't easy to get to the wreckage of the aircraft. They were in the snow-covered Siberian taiga. The first group of emergency services was able to get there on skis only 4 hours after receiving a message from eyewitnesses.

75 people were killed - all of the people on board. The plane shattered into many pieces on impact, which were scattered within a radius of 2 kilometers. They were taken to the Novokuznetsk airport hangar, where they were fixed to the frame in the shape of an airplane. There was a large amount of money, gold jewelry and other valuables of the passengers at the crash site. Novokuznetsk police was involved to prevent looting.

The nature of the disaster was misterious. The weather was good. The plane was at standard altitude, following its route. The crew was competent and experienced. The captain - 40-year-old Andrey Danilov, who had been the captain of the Airbus A310 since November 1992. He flew 9 675 hours, over 950 of them on an Airbus A310 (895 as a captain). The co-pilot was 33-year-old Igor Piskarev. He had been a co-pilot of the Airbus A310 since October 1993. He flew 5 885 hours, over 440 of them on an Airbus A310. There was also a reserve captain, 39-year-old Yaroslav Kudrinsky. He had been the captain of the Airbus A310 since November 1992. He had flown over 8 940 hours, 907 of them on an Airbus A310 (735 as a captain).

The crew did not report any problems. No malfunctions were detected. There were no signs of a terrorist attack or explosive decompression either. The crazy version of the UFO encounter was dismissed. Only the investigation of the flight data recorder allowed to clarify the reasons of that crash.

It happened at night, during the flight in the vicinity of Novokuznetsk, when the children of Captain Kudrinsky - 13-year-old Yana and 15-year-old Eldar – were inside the cockpit. Their father decided to take them on vacation to Hong Kong (family members of airline employees were eligible with discounted tickets). In the cockpit was a friend of the captain, also a pilot, who flew as a passenger, and a co-pilot. The captain in charge was resting outside the cockpit. Kudrinsky invited his children to sit in the captain’s place. At first, his daughter sat down, but she quickly got bored.

Captain: Come sit here now, on my chair, do you want?
Captain was leaving the pilot's seat
Yana sat down in the captain’s chair
Yana: Dad, pick me up.
Co-pilot: Novokuznetsk, Aeroflot 593, passing your point at 10 100 meters.
Captain: Well, Yana, will you lift?
Yana: No!
Captain: Don't press the buttons. Don't touch that red one!
Yana: Dad, can you turn this?
Captain: Novokuznetsk is on the left side, do you see it?
Yana: Are we flying so low?
Captain: 10 100 meters.
Yana: That's a lot, right?
Captain: A lot.
Yana was trying to leave the captain’s chair
Captain: Wait, be careful.
Yana: I'm already careful.
Yana left the captain’s seat