Journey to China

On December 19, 1985, an Aeroflot Antonov An-24B was operating a scheduled passenger flight along the route Yakutsk - Neryungri - Chita - Irkutsk. On board were 46 passengers and 5 crew members. In addition to the pilots, the crew included a navigator, a flight engineer, and a flight attendant.

As the aircraft approached Chita, the navigator left the cockpit to use the lavatory. Shortly after, the 33-year-old co-pilot, Shamil Gadzhi-Ogly Alimuradov, also exited the cockpit and entered the cabin. He soon returned and informed the captain that the flight attendant needed the flight engineer’s assistance. Once the engineer left the cockpit, the co-pilot locked the door from the inside and held a homemade knife to the captain’s throat, demanding the plane be flown to China.

The captain managed to discreetly alert air traffic control of the hijacking by pressing a special alarm button. He then attempted to divert the aircraft to a nearby military airfield, but Alimuradov noticed the maneuver and forced the captain to stay on course.

As the plane neared the Soviet-Chinese border, the captain contacted the controller again and explained the situation. He was given radio compass settings for the nearest accessible Chinese airport - Qiqihar. Once the Soviet aircraft entered Chinese airspace, the Chinese army did not scramble fighters to intercept it. However, the crew soon noticed the radio compass needle changing direction multiple times.

The captain suspected that the Chinese were deliberately guiding the plane off course and circling it over mountainous terrain in the hope it would crash. He decided to perform an emergency landing. The An-24 successfully landed in a rice field near the town of Gannan in Heilongjiang province in northeastern China. No one on board was injured, and the aircraft sustained only minor damage.

Chinese authorities took the co-pilot to Harbin for interrogation. Twenty-nine hours after the landing, the passengers and crew were transported by car to Qiqihar, and on December 21, to Harbin, from where they were flown back to Chita on a special flight. Alimuradov later stated that his motive for the hijacking was resentment toward his superiors for repeatedly denying him a promotion to captain. After he filed complaints with higher authorities, he was sent for several neurological evaluations and even temporarily suspended from flying.

On March 4, 1986, a Chinese court sentenced Shamil Alimuradov to eight years in prison. He was released on parole two years later. In 1989, he was extradited to the Soviet Union, where a Soviet court sentenced him to an additional five years of imprisonment the following year. Captain Vyacheslav Abramyan was initially suspended from flying but returned to duty two years later.

The hijacked An-24 was returned to the Soviet Union in January 1986. After undergoing repairs, it continued to operate in service. In 2000, the aircraft was retired and stored at the Yakutsk airport. In 2009, it was dismantled for scrap.