A Passenger Dangling Upside Down Outside the Aircraft for the Entire Flight

On October 13, 1977, a Yakovlev Yak-40K (the "K" denoting a convertible cargo-passenger variant) operated by Aeroflot was performing a scheduled flight from Rostov-on-Don to Mykolaiv. On board were 22 people: 18 passengers and 4 crew members.

Shortly after takeoff, as the aircraft climbed through an altitude of 250–300 meters, the cargo door -located in the forward fuselage - suddenly swung open. Caught by the slipstream, the door locked in the fully open position. Attached to this section of the aircraft were two rows of seats (rows two and three), which were immediately ripped from their mounts and pulled outside along with the passengers.

The seats flipped upside down and hung from the cargo door, suspending the passengers outside the aircraft nearly head-down.

In the third row sat a woman and her six-year-old son. The child’s seatbelt had been adjusted for an adult, and the woman’s belt, fastened with a non-standard bolt, detached from its mounting. Both were ejected from their seats and perished. A man seated in the second row managed to stay buckled and remained hanging upside down outside the aircraft for the entire flight.

The crew declared an emergency and initiated a return to the departure airport. Upon landing, as the aircraft decelerated and the airflow weakened, the cargo door began to lower. Passengers were then able to pull the man back inside and administer first aid. Apart from the mother and child, no other fatalities occurred.

The investigation revealed that the aircraft had flown a cargo mission the day before, during which the passenger seats had been removed in accordance with its convertible configuration. After completing the cargo flight, personnel at Rostov airport reconfigured the cabin back to a passenger layout. However, the cargo door was improperly secured, and the locking handles were not adequately checked. Additionally, the flight crew failed to verify the cargo door warning system prior to departure. As a result, the outside air forced the door open shortly after takeoff.

A year later, the same aircraft suffered another incident - this time a forced landing in the Krasnodar region - which left it damaged beyond repair and permanently withdrawn from service.