Warning: This article contains graphic description and video which some readers may find distressing
A black box recording revealed the final words of a pilot as the aircraft he was flying lost control and crashed after he allowed his kids in the cockpit.
On March 23, 1994, Russian airline Aeroflot – Flight 593 – carrying 63 passengers, nine flight attendants and three pilots crashed.
It had been traveling from Sheremetyevo International Airport, Moscow, Russia, to Kai Tak Airport, Hong Kong, China when relief pilot Yaroslav Vladimirovich Kudrinsky allowed his children into the cockpit and disaster struck.
Yaroslav’s two teenage children – 12-year-old Yana and 16-year-old Eldar ended up coming inside the cockpit to visit their dad, who then decided to let them play with the aircraft’s controls while the plane was on autopilot.
Despite autopilot being turned on, meaning the plane couldn’t be controlled by the children, when it was Eldar’s go to have a play, he ended up switching off autopilot for around 30 seconds, having pushed the controls too hard.
In this time, the teenager ended up in control of the aircraft’s movements which would lead to a catastrophic tragedy.
And the family’s interaction was caught on audio recording by the plane’s black box.
Black box recording
Yana can be heard complaining to her father just before he warns her, “Don’t run there, or they’ll fire us.”
As the plane unexpectedly began drifting to the right, veering off its intended course, Eldar quickly sensed that something was wrong.
Within moments, the three pilots on board also realized the danger, but by then, the aircraft had already tilted nearly 90 degrees—an extreme angle that the Airbus A310 was never designed to withstand.
The plane rapidly lost altitude, stalling before automatically entering a dive in an attempt to stabilize.
Although the pilots managed to regain some control and pull the aircraft out of the dive, they miscalculated the force required, which led to another stall.
“Go to the back! Go to the back, Eldar!” Yaroslav can be heard shouting in urgency as the pilots struggle to regain command. “You see the danger, don’t you?”
With all three pilots making frantic efforts to correct their mistakes and bring the aircraft back under control, Yaroslav reassures his children, “Get out now! All is normal.”
Then—suddenly—the recording cuts off.
The pilots managed to regain control of the spiraling aircraft, but by then, it had lost too much altitude and ultimately crashed into the Kuznetsk Alatau mountain range, resulting in the tragic loss of everyone on board.
Following the crash, investigators found no signs of mechanical failure and concluded that the disaster was likely caused by the decision to let children handle the controls during the flight.
Perhaps the most heartbreaking revelation was that if the three pilots had allowed the autopilot to correct the situation instead of intervening manually, the aircraft would have stabilized on its own, and all passengers would have survived.
At the time, an Aeroflot spokesperson stated that the airline had since implemented stricter cockpit regulations in response to the incident.
