<P> The crew of the Tu - 134A aircraft, serial number 62327 manufactured on 28 June 1979, consisted of pilot in command Alexander Kliuyev, co-pilot Gennady Zhirnov, navigating officer Ivan Mokhonko, flight engineer Kyuri Khamzatov and three flight attendants . Having departed from Koltsovo Airport in Yekaterinburg (then Sverdlovsk) and bound for Grozny, Flight 6502 had one stopover in Kurumoch Airport of Samara (then Kuibyshev). </P> <P> While approaching Kurumoch Airport, Kliuyev made a bet with Zhirnov that he, Kliuyev, could make an instrument - only approach with curtained cockpit windows, thus having no visual contact with the ground, instead of an NDB approach, suggested by the air traffic control . Kliuyev further ignored the ground proximity warning at an altitude of 62--65 metres (203--213 ft) and did not make the suggested go - around . The aircraft touched down at a speed of 150 knots (280 km / h) and came to rest upside down . Sixty - three people died during the accident and seven more in hospitals later . Among the passengers were fourteen children, all of whom survived the accident . The top secret report of the Chairman of Kuibyshev oblispolkom V.A. Pogodin to the Premier of the Soviet Union, Nikolai Ryzhkov, gave slightly different figures: 85 passengers and 8 crew members aboard, 53 passengers and five crew members died in the crash and 11 more in hospital later . </P> <P> Even though Zhirnov made no attempt to avert the crash, he subsequently tried to save the passengers and died of cardiac arrest en route to hospital . Kliuyev was prosecuted and sentenced to fifteen years in prison, later reduced to six years served . </P>

In 1986 a soviet pilot made a bet