Aeroflot Flight 821 - Last Minutes of The Flight

Last Minutes of The Flight

Irek Birbov, the ATC controller on duty the night of the incident gave an interview where he told about his communication with Flight 821. He said that on final approach the aircraft was too far right of the landing course, and the controller informed the pilot about that, who corrected the approach course.

But instead of descending to land, the plane then went up. ATC controller noticed this also and reportedly radioed the aircraft with this message: "According to my data, you are climbing. Confirm current altitude 900m." The aircraft should have been at an altitude of 600m at that time to descend further 300m. The pilot replied "Affirmative, we are descending" and initiated a climb to about 1200m, at which point he could no longer catch the glideslope. The controller instructed the pilot to turn right and go around. The pilot acknowledged but did not execute this instruction - instead, he turned left and asked to continue his approach. The controller asked whether everything was all right; the pilots confirmed that it was. The controller then insisted that the aircraft circle, instructing them to switch to another ATC controller. The pilots, however, never contacted the other ATC and started to descend quickly. When they were at about 600m, the controller radioed the plane to maintain 600m. The only thing he heard from pilots was "Aaa shit!" A moment later the controller saw the explosion in the outskirts of the city.