Malév Flight 203
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- 6 km SW of Urziceni, about 40 km E of Otopeni Airport, Bucharest, Romania
- 44°41′48″N 26°32′14″E / 44.69667°N 26.53722°E
 Tupolev Tu-134 of Malév Hungarian Airlines | |
| Accident | |
|---|---|
| Date | September 21, 1977 |
| Summary | Pilot error, CFIT |
| Site |
|
 | |
| Aircraft | |
| Aircraft type | Tupolev Tu-134 |
| Aircraft name | LbCecil |
| Operator | Malév Hungarian Airlines |
| Registration | HA-LBC |
| Flight origin | Atatürk International Airport, Istanbul, Turkey |
| Stopover | Otopeni International Airport, Bucharest, Romania |
| Destination | Ferihegy International Airport, Budapest, Hungary |
| Occupants | 53 |
| Passengers | 45 |
| Crew | 8 |
| Fatalities | 29 |
| Survivors | 24 |
Malév Flight 203 was a passenger flight operated by a Tupolev Tu-134 aircraft of the Hungarian airline Malév. On 21 September 1977, the flight crashed approximately 40 kilometres (25 mi) east of Otopeni Airport in Bucharest and 6 kilometres (3.7 mi) southwest of Urziceni. The crash resulted in the deaths of 29 people, but significantly, 24 passengers survived.
The Tu-134 was produced by the Kharkov Aviation Plant in December 1968. The airliner was sold to the Hungarian airline Malév, and received the registration HA-LBC on 17 January 1969. Notably, the aircraft experienced a hard landing on 7 October 1969 at Schiphol Airport, resulting in the collapse of the right main landing gear. After repairs, HA-LBC was returned to service.[1]
Accident
The aircraft was performing flight MA-203 from Istanbul to Budapest with an intermediate stop in Bucharest, carrying 8 crew members and 45 passengers. The crew of the airliner was mixed: both pilots, the navigator, the flight engineer, and three flight attendants were from the Government Aviation Squadron, while an additional navigator was from Malév. The captain, reportedly Péter Fejes, was the personal pilot and friend of János Kádár, the leader of the Hungarian People's Republic. The Tu-134 was on final approach when, approximately 40 kilometers from the airport, in the landing configuration (landing gear extended, flaps deployed to 20°, stabilizer set to the landing position) with a slight (3–4°) right bank at an absolute altitude of 55 meters and a speed of about 350 km/h, it collided with trees. After skidding through the trees for 75 meters and disintegrating, the airliner crashed into a steep bank of a ditch, after which it rolled onto a field where it stopped and burned. The debris field extended 800 meters. The crash site was located 32 kilometers east of the runway threshold (according to other sources, slightly less than 40 kilometers) and 6.3 kilometers southwest of Urziceni. In the incident, 21 passengers and all 8 crew members perished. Only 24 passengers survived, all of whom were seated in the rear section: 23 Britons and 1 Turk.[2]
It is worth noting that there was an interesting moment with the Turkish passenger. At the crash site, only 23 surviving passengers were initially found. However, during the identification of the deceased, it was discovered that one passenger was missing. Documents were rechecked and a request was sent to Istanbul, confirming that this passenger had been on board, but for some inexplicable reason had disappeared. A few days later, the missing Turk was found. It turned out that, uninjured, this passenger had walked out of the intact part of the aircraft, taken his suitcase, and hitchhiked to Bucharest, where he went about his business. After completing his tasks, he went to the Hungarian airline's office and demanded to be flown back to Istanbul.[3]