Aeroflot is the national airline of Russia, currently operating as a member of SkyTeam alliance.
IATA:SU/ICAO:AFL
History
The history of Aeroflot can be traced back to the 8 March 1923 founding of Dobrolet, who used aircraft from the Red Air fleet to operate services between Moscow and Central Aisa. This was followed by the Ukrainian airline Ukrvozdukhput, which was founded on 1 June 1923, but did not start flying until 15 April 1925, with Dornier Komets operating from Kharkov to Odessa and Keiv, and the small Georgian carrier Zakavia, which was founded on 10 May 1923, operating Junkers F 13s between Tiblisi and Baku. The three airlines were combined to form an all soviet airline named Dobroflot in 1929. Renamed Grazdansyi Vozduzhniy Flot on 29 october 1930, the airline underwent a further reorganisation, and was given the name Aeroflot on 26 March 1932.[1]
By 1935 Aeroflot was covering the length of the Soviet Union, with services extending from Leningrad to Sakhalin island in the Far East. Standard equipment was the Tupolev ANT-9 tri-motor, supplemented by the Kalinin K-5. Aeroflot began international flights on 31 August 1936 with regular flights from to Prague. On 31 March 1937 the airline introduced a Moscow to Berlin service, followed by a Leningrad to Stockholm service later that year. These routes were suspended following the German invasion of the Soviet Union on 22 June 1941, with the only remaining regular service being the trunk route across Siberia.[1]
Accidents and incidents
- In March 23, 1994 an Airbus A310 en route from Moscow to Hong Kong crashed in a forest in Mezhduréchensk, Russia killing all 75 people on board. In an unexplainable action the cockpit voice recorder revealed that before the accident, the Captain seated his 15-year old son in the pilot seat and lost control after oversteering the rudder in auto-pilot mode, which made it difficult for the Captain to recover control when he returned to his seat.