Vnukovo Airlines Flight 2801

Vnukovo Airlines Flight 2801

The wreckage at Operafjellet
Accident
Date	29 August 1996 CEST
Summary	Controlled flight into terrain due to navigational error
Site	Operafjellet, Spitsbergen, Svalbard, Norway 78°12′51″N 16°05′43″E / 78.21417°N 16.09528°E / 78.21417; 16.09528[1]: 3
Aircraft
Aircraft type	Tupolev Tu-154M
Operator	Vnukovo Airlines
Registration	RA-85621
Flight origin	Vnukovo International Airport, Moscow, Russia
Destination	Svalbard Airport, Longyear, Longyearbyen, Norway
Passengers	130
Crew	11
Fatalities	141
Survivors	0

Vnukovo Airlines Flight 2801 was an international charter flight from Vnukovo International Airport in Moscow, Russia, to Svalbard Airport on Spitsbergen, in the Norwegian archipelago of Svalbard. On 29 August 1996 at 10:22:23 CEST, a Tupolev Tu-154M operating this flight crashed into the ground in Operafjellet during the final approach to Svalbard Airport. All 141 people (11 crew members and 130 passengers, of whom three were children) aboard the plane were killed, making it the deadliest aviation accident in Norway.^[2] The accident was the result of a series of small navigational errors causing the aircraft to be 3.7 kilometres (2.3 mi; 2.0 nmi) from the approach centerline at the time of impact.

The Vnukovo Airlines aircraft, with the registration number RA-85621, had been chartered by Arktikugol, a Russian state-owned coal-mining company, to fly Russian and Ukrainian workers to the towns of Barentsburg and Pyramiden in Svalbard. The accident was a contributing cause for Arktikugol's closure of Pyramiden two years later. The accident was investigated by the Accident Investigation Board Norway with assistance from the Interstate Aviation Committee and became known as the Operafjell accident (Norwegian: Operafjell-ulykken). After the accident, a series of lawsuits determined compensation for the victims' families.