{"id":19021144,"date":"2026-09-01T21:00:58","date_gmt":"2026-09-01T19:00:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/aeroflot-6502-1986-kuibyshev-curtained-cockpit-bet\/"},"modified":"2026-09-04T08:42:23","modified_gmt":"2026-09-04T06:42:23","slug":"aeroflot-6502-1986-kuibyshev-curtained-cockpit-bet","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/es\/aeroflot-6502-1986-kuibyshev-curtained-cockpit-bet\/","title":{"rendered":"Aeroflot 6502: El capit\u00e1n que apost\u00f3 a que pod\u00eda aterrizar a ciegas."},"content":{"rendered":"<style>.et_pb_title_container h1.entry-title { padding-top: 40px !important; }<\/style>\n<!-- mfsh:top -->\n\n<style>\n.mfsh-trigger{display:inline-flex;align-items:center;gap:10px;height:44px;padding:0 18px;margin:0 0 26px;border:2px solid 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The Tupolev Tu-134 had them fitted for training: draw them, and the pilot can see instruments and nothing else.<\/p>\r\n<p>Flight 6502 was not a training flight. There were 87 passengers behind the door, among them fourteen children. Captain Alexander Kliuyev had told his first officer he could land the aircraft blind, and now he was going to prove it.<\/p>\r\n<div style=\"background:#f5f5f5;padding:20px;margin:24px 0\"><p style=\"margin:0 0 10px;font-weight:700;font-size:17px\">Quick Facts<\/p><ul style=\"margin:0;padding-left:18px;line-height:1.8\"><li><strong>Flight:<\/strong> Aeroflot Flight 6502, Sverdlovsk to Grozny with a stop at Kuibyshev<\/li><li><strong>Date:<\/strong> 20 October 1986<\/li><li><strong>Aircraft:<\/strong> Tupolev Tu-134A, registration CCCP-65766<\/li><li><strong>On board:<\/strong> 87 passengers and 7 crew, 94 people in total<\/li><li><strong>Outcome:<\/strong> 70 killed, 24 survivors; all 14 children on board survived<\/li><li><strong>Cause:<\/strong> Official finding of pilot negligence<\/li><li><strong>Sentence:<\/strong> 15 years, of which Kliuyev served six<\/li><\/ul><\/div>\r\n<h2 style=\"padding-top:22px\">The bet<\/h2>\r\n<p>Air traffic control had offered Flight 6502 a straightforward NDB approach into Kurumoch Airport. Kliuyev, 29 years into a system that prized bravado, wanted to do it on instruments alone, with the windows covered. He had wagered as much with First Officer Gennady Zhirnov.<\/p>\r\n<p>Blind flying is a real and necessary skill, drilled into every airline pilot. The curtains exist precisely so that it can be practised. What made this different was that the aeroplane was full of fare-paying passengers, the weather did not require it, and nobody on the flight deck stopped him. Several crew members watched the curtains close. None intervened.<\/p>\r\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\" style=\"margin:0 0 24px;width:100%\"><img data-opt-id=2022017406  fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"skip-lazy\" data-no-lazy=\"1\" loading=\"eager\" width=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/ml5psubhxdln.i.optimole.com\/cb:0e0_.b970\/w:auto\/h:auto\/q:mauto\/ig:avif\/https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2026\/09\/tupolev-tu-134a-3-aeroflot-soviet-jet.jpg\" alt=\"A Tupolev Tu-134A-3 in Aeroflot service\" style=\"width:100%;height:auto;max-width:100%;display:block\"><figcaption style=\"font-size:13px;color:#777;text-align:center;margin-top:6px;font-style:italic\">The Tu-134&rsquo;s cockpit curtains were fitted for instrument training. On Flight 6502 they were drawn on a scheduled passenger service. Photo: Wikimedia Commons<\/figcaption><\/figure>\r\n<h2 style=\"padding-top:22px\">Ninety seconds<\/h2>\r\n<p>Behind the curtain, Kliuyev misjudged two things at once: how high he was, and how fast he was coming down. The ground-proximity warning sounded at somewhere between 62 and 65 metres &mdash; barely 200 feet. The correct response, the only response, was to go around. He did not.<\/p>\r\n<p>The Tu-134 hit the runway hard, at around 150 knots. The landing gear took a load it was never built to absorb and collapsed. The aircraft slewed off the end of the runway, rolled over and caught fire.<\/p>\r\n<p>Twenty-four people got out. One of them was Kliuyev.<\/p>\r\n<div style=\"max-width:550px;margin:0 auto 28px\"><iframe class=\"skip-lazy\" data-no-lazy=\"1\" loading=\"eager\" src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/embed\/Tweet.html?id=1980335106146410887&theme=light\" style=\"width:100%;height:600px;border:none;overflow:hidden\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\r\n<h2 style=\"padding-top:22px\">The man in the right-hand seat<\/h2>\r\n<p>Gennady Zhirnov survived the impact. What he did next is the part of this story that deserves to outlast the bet. He went back into the burning aircraft to get passengers out, took in a great deal of smoke doing it, and suffered cardiac arrest on the way to hospital. He did not survive.<\/p>\r\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\" style=\"margin:0 0 24px;width:100%\"><img data-opt-id=824090976  fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"skip-lazy\" data-no-lazy=\"1\" loading=\"eager\" width=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/ml5psubhxdln.i.optimole.com\/cb:0e0_.b970\/w:auto\/h:auto\/q:mauto\/ig:avif\/https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2026\/09\/tupolev-tu-134a-aeroflot-twin-jet.jpg\" alt=\"A Tupolev Tu-134A twin-jet airliner in Aeroflot colours\" style=\"width:100%;height:auto;max-width:100%;display:block\"><figcaption style=\"font-size:13px;color:#777;text-align:center;margin-top:6px;font-style:italic\">Fourteen children were aboard Flight 6502. All fourteen survived. Photo: Wikimedia Commons<\/figcaption><\/figure>\r\n<p>That fourteen children walked away from an inverted, burning airliner is the one piece of grace in the whole account.<\/p>\r\n<h2 style=\"padding-top:22px\">The cover-up, and the reckoning<\/h2>\r\n<p>Investigators found no mechanical reason for any of it. The flight recordings, and reportedly an admission from Kliuyev himself, pointed to the dare; Western outlets including the Los Angeles Times reported it that way in 1987. Kliuyev later retracted, blaming a fuel leak and engine failure instead. No evidence supported him.<\/p>\r\n<div style=\"background:#f8f9fa;border-left:4px solid #d32f2f;padding:20px 22px;margin:18px 0 24px;font-size:16px;line-height:1.7\"><em>&ldquo;Pilot negligence.&rdquo;<\/em><div style=\"margin-top:10px;font-size:14px;color:#555\"><strong>Official accident investigation<\/strong> &mdash; The determined cause of the crash of Aeroflot Flight 6502<\/div><\/div>\r\n<p>The Soviet authorities tried to keep the details buried, and largely succeeded for years. The story reached the public in good part because a firefighter who had been at the scene kept his photographs and eventually released them.<\/p>\r\n<p>Kliuyev was charged with violating transportation and flight safety rules and sentenced by the Supreme Court of the Russian SFSR to 15 years. He served six.<\/p>\r\n<p>Aviation safety culture has spent the four decades since building the thing that was missing from that cockpit: the expectation that any crew member can stop the captain. Flight 6502 is not really a story about a bad landing. It is a story about a flight deck where three people watched a man cover the windows, and nobody said no.<\/p>\r\n<div style=\"position:relative;padding-bottom:56.25%;height:0;overflow:hidden;margin:24px 0\"><iframe class=\"skip-lazy\" data-no-lazy=\"1\" loading=\"eager\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/HVUiISCJxMY\" style=\"position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;border:0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\r\n<p>The Tu-134 itself was a capable and much-loved machine, and it deserves better than to be remembered only for this. The footage above shows one working normally.<\/p>\r\n\n<style>.mfq{margin:34px 0 8px}.mfq h2{font:26px\/1.3 \"Gilroy semiBold\",Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;color:#0d1117;padding-top:22px;margin:0 0 6px}.mfq .qa details{border-top:1px solid #5C91FF;margin:0;padding:0}.mfq .qa details:last-of-type{border-bottom:1px solid #e2e7ee}.mfq .qa summary{cursor:pointer;list-style:none;display:flex;justify-content:space-between;align-items:center;gap:16px;padding:22px 26px;font:18px\/1.7 \"Gilroy semiBold\",Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;color:#0d1117}.mfq .qa summary::-webkit-details-marker{display:none}.mfq .qa summary::after{content:\"+\";font:24px Helvetica,sans-serif;color:#3568e0;flex:0 0 auto}.mfq .qa details[open] summary::after{content:\"\\2013\"}.mfq .qa details:hover summary{color:#3568e0}.mfq .qa .a{font:16px\/1.7 \"Gilroy regular\",Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;color:#454e5e;padding:0 26px 24px}.mfq .qa .a a{color:#3568e0}@media(max-width:680px){.mfq .qa summary{padding:18px 14px;font-size:17px}.mfq .qa .a{padding:0 14px 20px}}<\/style>\n\n\n<section class=\"mfq\"><h2>Frequently Asked Questions<\/h2><div class=\"qa\"><details open><summary>What happened to Aeroflot Flight 6502?<\/summary><div class=\"a\">On 20 October 1986 the Tupolev Tu-134A operating Aeroflot Flight 6502 crashed while landing at Kurumoch Airport, Kuibyshev. The captain had covered the cockpit windows with curtains to fly the approach on instruments alone. The aircraft hit the runway hard, its landing gear collapsed, and it overran, rolled over and caught fire.<\/div><\/details><details><summary>Why did the pilot curtain the cockpit windows?<\/summary><div class=\"a\">Captain Alexander Kliuyev had wagered First Officer Gennady Zhirnov that he could land the aircraft on instruments alone. Two minutes from touchdown he instructed the flight engineer to close the curtains. Air traffic control had offered a straightforward NDB approach, the weather did not require blind flying, and the aircraft was carrying 87 passengers.<\/div><\/details><details><summary>How many people died on Aeroflot 6502?<\/summary><div class=\"a\">Seventy of the 94 people on board were killed, though figures vary slightly between sources depending on whether later deaths are counted. Twenty-four people survived, among them Kliuyev himself. All fourteen children on board survived the crash, which remains the one piece of grace in the whole account.<\/div><\/details><details><summary>What happened to First Officer Gennady Zhirnov?<\/summary><div class=\"a\">Zhirnov survived the impact and went back into the burning aircraft to get passengers out. He took in a great deal of smoke doing so and suffered cardiac arrest on the way to hospital. He did not survive. His conduct after the crash stands in stark contrast to the wager that caused it.<\/div><\/details><details><summary>What was the official cause of the crash?<\/summary><div class=\"a\">Investigators determined the cause to be pilot negligence. There was no mechanical fault. The flight recordings, and reportedly an admission from Kliuyev, pointed to the dare. He later retracted and blamed a fuel leak and engine failure, but no evidence supported that claim.<\/div><\/details><details><summary>What sentence did the captain receive?<\/summary><div class=\"a\">Kliuyev was charged with violating transportation and flight safety rules and sentenced by the Supreme Court of the Russian SFSR to 15 years in prison. He served six. Soviet authorities suppressed details of the crash for years; the story reached the public partly because a firefighter at the scene kept and later released his photographs.<\/div><\/details><\/div><\/section>\n\n\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@type\":\"FAQPage\",\"mainEntity\":[{\"@type\":\"Question\",\"name\":\"What happened to Aeroflot Flight 6502?\",\"acceptedAnswer\":{\"@type\":\"Answer\",\"text\":\"On 20 October 1986 the Tupolev Tu-134A operating Aeroflot Flight 6502 crashed while landing at Kurumoch Airport, Kuibyshev. The captain had covered the cockpit windows with curtains to fly the approach on instruments alone. The aircraft hit the runway hard, its landing gear collapsed, and it overran, rolled over and caught fire.\"}},{\"@type\":\"Question\",\"name\":\"Why did the pilot curtain the cockpit windows?\",\"acceptedAnswer\":{\"@type\":\"Answer\",\"text\":\"Captain Alexander Kliuyev had wagered First Officer Gennady Zhirnov that he could land the aircraft on instruments alone. Two minutes from touchdown he instructed the flight engineer to close the curtains. Air traffic control had offered a straightforward NDB approach, the weather did not require blind flying, and the aircraft was carrying 87 passengers.\"}},{\"@type\":\"Question\",\"name\":\"How many people died on Aeroflot 6502?\",\"acceptedAnswer\":{\"@type\":\"Answer\",\"text\":\"Seventy of the 94 people on board were killed, though figures vary slightly between sources depending on whether later deaths are counted. Twenty-four people survived, among them Kliuyev himself. All fourteen children on board survived the crash, which remains the one piece of grace in the whole account.\"}},{\"@type\":\"Question\",\"name\":\"What happened to First Officer Gennady Zhirnov?\",\"acceptedAnswer\":{\"@type\":\"Answer\",\"text\":\"Zhirnov survived the impact and went back into the burning aircraft to get passengers out. He took in a great deal of smoke doing so and suffered cardiac arrest on the way to hospital. He did not survive. His conduct after the crash stands in stark contrast to the wager that caused it.\"}},{\"@type\":\"Question\",\"name\":\"What was the official cause of the crash?\",\"acceptedAnswer\":{\"@type\":\"Answer\",\"text\":\"Investigators determined the cause to be pilot negligence. There was no mechanical fault. The flight recordings, and reportedly an admission from Kliuyev, pointed to the dare. 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Soviet authorities suppressed details of the crash for years; the story reached the public partly because a firefighter at the scene kept and later released his photographs.\"}}]}<\/script><p><em>Sources: Wikipedia, Aviation Safety Network, All That&rsquo;s Interesting, Simple Flying, and AvGeekery.<\/em><\/p>\n<!-- mfsh:bottom -->\n\n<button type=\"button\" class=\"mfsh-trigger mfsh-bottom\" data-mfsh-placement=\"bottom\" aria-haspopup=\"dialog\"><svg><use href=\"#mfsh-i-share\"\/><\/svg>Share this story<\/button>\n\n<!-- \/mfsh:bottom -->\n\r\n<div style=\"background:#f0f4ff;border-left:4px solid #5C91FF;padding:16px 20px;margin:32px 0 8px\"><p style=\"margin:0 0 8px;font-weight:600;color:#333\">Related Posts<\/p><p style=\"margin:4px 0\"><a href=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/tu-134-fake-road-landing-italians-russia-1974\/\">The Tu-134 and the Fake Highway Landing of 1973<\/a><\/p><p style=\"margin:4px 0\"><a href=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/aeroflot-593-a310-siberia-1994-autopilot-declutch\/\">Aeroflot 593: The Autopilot That Gave No Warning<\/a><\/p><\/div>\r\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Share this story At 3:48 in the afternoon on 20 October 1986, two minutes from touchdown at Kuibyshev, the captain of a Soviet airliner asked his flight engineer to pull the curtains across the cockpit windows. The Tupolev Tu-134 had them fitted for training: draw them, and the pilot can see instruments and nothing else. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":19020899,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"editor_notices":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[665,666],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19021144","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-aviation-world","category-history-and-legends"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Aeroflot 6502: The Captain Who Bet He Could Land Blind | MiGFlug<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"In 1986 the captain of Aeroflot 6502 curtained the cockpit windows to win a bet. Seventy people died. 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