12 years ago yesterday, on January 1, 2011, Kolavia Flight 348 caught fire while being pushed back from the stand at Surgut Airport (SGC) in Khanty-Mansi. Despite being able to evacuate the plane quickly, three people were killed and 43 injured.The aircraft involved in the accident was a 28-year-old Soviet-built Tupolev Tu-154 with the registration RA-85588. The plane first flew in 1983, entering service with Soviet Union national flag carrier Aeroflot shortly afterward. Between 1994 and 1999, it was transferred to Mavial Magadan Airlines and used for flights between the Russian Far East and the American state of Alaska. In 2000 Vladivostok Air acquired the plane and used it until it went to Kogalymavia (trading as Kolavia) in 2007.

The flight was a regularly scheduled domestic service between SGC and DME

Kolavia Flight 348 was a regularly scheduled 1,335-mile flight between Surgut Airport (SGC) in Khanty-Mansi to Moskva-Domodedovo Airport (DME) in the Soviet capital. Onboard the aircraft were eight crew members, ten off-duty Kogalymavia employees, and 116 passengers.

SGC-DME route map
Image: GCmaps

At 10:00 local time, the plane pushed back from the stand for the flight to Moscow. When the pilots started the engines, a fire erupted in the center of the fuselage and quickly spread throughout the cabin. The pilots immediately shut down the engines and the auxiliary power unit (APU). Flight attendants then deployed the slides for the evacuation of the plane. Within four minutes of the pilots declaring an emergency, fire engines were on the scene, dousing the aircraft with fire retardant foam. By 10:20, the plane was engulfed in flames, with aviation fuel leaking and burning on the apron.

Three passengers died of smoke inhalation

Emergency responders finally got the situation under control at 10:40, by which time only the outer wings and the tail section had survived. Three passengers, unfortunately, died from smoke inhalation, while 43 suffered burns. Immediately following the incident, Russia's Federal Transport Oversight Agency grounded all Tu-154s until the investigation of what caused the fire was completed.

The investigation into Kolavia Flight 348

Russia's Interstate Aviation Committee (MAK) was in charge of the investigation. Both flight recorders were recovered from the aircraft and were sent to be deciphered. Russia's Ministry of Emergency Situations said the initial findings pointed towards an electrical short circuit as being responsible for starting the fire.

Eight months later, MAK released its final report on the incident, confirming that it was indeed a short circuit in an electrical panel that had caused the blaze. Badly worn-out contractors failed to operate correctly after the pilots started the plane's engines. The subsequent failure produced an electrical current 20 times the norm creating an electrical arc. MAK also noted that no maintenance schedule existed for the electric board.

About the Tupolev Tu-154

Similar in design to the British Hawker Siddeley Trident and the Boeing 727, the 114-to-180-seat Tu-154 first flew on October 4, 1968. The plane had a top speed of Mach 0.86 and a range of 3,280 miles. The Tu-154 first entered passenger service with Aeroflot in February 1972 and became the airline's workhorse carrying half of all passengers flown by Aeroflot and its subsidiaries. During its production run between 1968 and 2013, Tupolev built 1,026 Tu-154s.