On March 23, 1994, Aeroflot Flight 593, en route from Moscow to Hong Kong, crashed due to a preventable mistake.
Captain Andrew Viktorovich Danilov, first officer Igor Vasilyevich Piskaryov, and relief captain Yaroslav Vladimirovich Kudrinsky were in the cockpit. Kudrinsky let his children, Yana, 13, and Eldar, 15, enter, despite regulations.
Eldar sat in the pilot’s seat and unknowingly switched the autopilot to manual by moving the control stick. The pilots, unfamiliar with the system, failed to notice the change. By the time they realized the aircraft was in trouble, it was too late. Despite desperate efforts, they couldn’t regain control.
The plane crashed into the Kuznetsk Alatau Mountains, killing all 75 passengers and crew.
