Tupolev Tu-134

The Tu-134 is close to extinct, and most of its record comes from Soviet-era flying. Up to 7 October 2026 it has 39 fatal events in our data. 25 count, in about 18 million passenger flights; 19 of those were before 1992, and the last was in 2011. Crews descending below safe heights, poor discipline in the cockpit and air traffic control errors explain most of them. Its record is weaker than that of the DC-9, its nearest Western counterpart, and Soviet-era flight counts are estimates.

What the Tu-134 is and where it still flies

The Tu-134 is a short-haul twinjet with two engines at the tail, a T-tail and, on most versions, a glazed nose for the navigator. Its main gear folds into pods behind the wing, like the Tu-154. It first flew in 1963 and entered service in 1967. Tupolev built 852, typically with about 76 seats.

Aeroflot flew most of them, alongside Interflug, Balkan, Malév, ČSA and Aviogenex in Eastern Europe and Hàng Không Việt Nam, now Vietnam Airlines. After 1991 they passed to airlines such as UTair, RusLine and Azerbaijan Airlines. About 5 remain, with Russian state and military operators. Regular passenger flights have ended.

Descending below safe heights

Nine counted accidents were flights into terrain, and several more were approaches flown too low in bad weather. On 30 August 1983 a Tu-134 began its descent towards Alma-Ata too early over the mountains; the terrain warning sounded for 23 seconds before the crew reacted, and all 90 died. On 12 December 1986, near Berlin-Schönefeld, the radio operator took a notice that a runway was closed for a landing clearance, and the jet sank into trees (72 of 82).

Vietnam Airlines 815 pressed on below a safe height in a downpour at Phnom Penh in 1997; 65 of 66 died, and a one-year-old boy survived. The last counted accident followed the same pattern. On 20 June 2011 a RusLine crew descended below the safe altitude in fog at Petrozavodsk and came down on a highway; 47 of 52 died, and the navigator was found to be mildly drunk.

Discipline and control

• 20 October 1986, Kuybyshev: the captain flew the approach with his window blinds closed as unauthorised practice. The jet hit the runway hard, a wing failed and it burned; 70 of 94 died.
• 5 December 1995, Azerbaijan Airlines, Nakhchivan: after one engine failed, the crew shut down the good one by mistake. 52 of 82 died.
• 11 August 1979, Kurilovka: a controller put two Aeroflot Tu-134s at the same level on crossing airways, and they collided in cloud. 178 died on the two aircraft, among them the Pakhtakor football team.

In 1985 a Tu-134 collided near Lviv with a military An-26 that civil and military controllers had both misplaced (79 dead).

Accidents the aircraft played a part in

On 1 February 1985 ice broke away from the wings on take-off from Minsk and was swallowed by both rear-mounted engines, which flamed out within a minute; 58 of 80 died. Fires in or under the rear cargo hold brought down Tu-134s in 1986, in the Komi republic (54 of 94), and in 1990, near Pervouralsk (27 of 71).

What is left out

Seven acts of violence are listed but not counted, including the Volga-Aviaexpress jet destroyed by a suicide bomber in 2004 (44 dead) and a Transair Georgia Tu-134 shot down approaching Sukhumi in 1993 (27). Seven cargo, test, military, ferry and other crashes are also left out, among them the Mozambique government flight that killed President Samora Machel in 1986. Our methodology explains why.

How to tell if you are on one

Flight trackers show T134. Two engines at the tail, a T-tail, gear pods behind the wings and, on most, a glazed nose give it away.