Yakovlev Yak-42

The Yak-42 has a weak record for a jet airliner. Up to 7 October 2026 it has had eight fatal accidents, all on passenger flights, in only about 2.9 million passenger flights. One was a design failure in 1982; the rest came from crews flying into mountains or mishandling take-offs. Only about 20 still fly, so you are unlikely to board one outside regional Russia.

What the Yak-42 is

The Yak-42 is a three-engine narrowbody of about 120 seats, Yakovlev's step up from the small Yak-40. It first flew in 1975 and entered service with the Soviet Aeroflot in 1980. It has three Lotarev D-36 turbofans at the back, a T-tail, a swept wing and an airstair under the tail, so it can work at airports with few ground services. The Yak-42D has more fuel and range. About 185 were built, the last in 2003.

Today the few left fly with small Russian regional airlines; Izhavia in Izhevsk has been one of the last scheduled operators. The aircraft are old, with analogue cockpits and no fly-by-wireFly-by-wireA flight control system in which the pilot's inputs go to computers, which then move the control surfaces. Many such systems also stop unsafe manoeuvres.More in the glossary.

Aeroflot 8641 and the stabiliser

On 28 June 1982, Aeroflot flight 8641 was descending from Leningrad to Kyiv when the horizontal stabiliser suddenly moved past its stop and pitched the aircraft nose-down. The aircraft broke up in the air near Verbovichi in Belarus, and all 132 people died. Investigators found that the nut on the stabiliser's screw jack had worn almost through, so the screw disconnected. It is the only crash in the Yak-42 record that comes from the aircraft itself; the fleet was grounded and the design was changed before flights resumed.

Crews, mountains and take-offs

The other seven crashes are about people and procedures:

• 14 September 1990, Aeroflot: hit trees short of the runway at Sverdlovsk after the pilot departed from the approach pattern at night. 4 of 129 died.
• 31 July 1992, China General Aviation 7552: would not rotate on take-off at Nanjing because the stabiliser was still set for landing; the crew had probably skipped the checklist. 107 of 126 died.
• 20 November 1993, Avioimpex 110: diverted to Ohrid because of heavy snow at Skopje and flew into a mountain during a second approach, with the airport's VOR beacon out of service. All 116 died.
• 17 December 1997, AeroSvit 241: a crew new to Thessaloniki got lost on approach and flew into Mount Pente Pigadia. All 70 died.
• 25 December 1999, Cubana: hit a hill near Valencia, Venezuela, on approach. All 22 died.
• 26 May 2003, Ukrainian-Mediterranean Airlines 4230: flew into a mountain near Trabzon with Spanish peacekeepers on board. All 75 died.
• 7 September 2011, YAK Service 9633: the aircraft carrying the Lokomotiv Yaroslavl ice hockey team crashed after take-off at Yaroslavl. 44 of 45 died.

At Yaroslavl, investigators found that the crew had calculated the wrong decision speed and that a pilot, used to the Yak-40, probably kept his feet on the brakes during the take-off run. The first officer had a medical problem and phenobarbital in his blood. Poor training and the lack of checks on crews were listed as contributing factors.

The aircraft or the operating environment?

Mostly the operators. After 1982 the airframe did what it was asked; the crashes show crews without the training, navigation aids or terrain awareness to fly safely into difficult airports. Our methodology counts all eight, and on so few flights they add up to a high accident rate.

How to tell if you are on one

Flight trackers show the ICAO code YK42. Look for three engines at the back, one of them in the tail, and stairs that fold down under it. If an airline offers a newer aircraft on the same route, that is the better choice.