Aeroflot Flight 593

Aeroflot Flight 593 was an Aeroflot – Russian International Airlines Airbus A310-300 that crashed into a hillside of the Kuznetsk Alatau mountain range, Kemerovo Oblast, on 23 March 1994. The jet was en route from Sheremetyevo International Airport to Hong Kong Kai Tak International Airport with 75 occupants aboard, of whom 63 were passengers. Most of the passengers were businessmen from Hong Kong and Taiwan who were looking for economic opportunities in Russia. There were no survivors.

No evidence of technical malfunction was found. Cockpit voice and flight data recorders revealed the presence of the pilot's 12-year-old daughter and 15-year-old son on the flight deck. The latter apparently had unknowingly disabled the A310 autopilot's control of the aircraft's ailerons while seated at the controls. The aircraft had then rolled into a steep bank and near-vertical dive from which the pilots were unable to regain control. Unlike Soviet planes with which the crew had been familiar, no audible alarm accompanied the autopilot's partial disconnection. Because of this they remained unaware of what was happening.