Ilyushin Il-62


The Ilyushin Il-62 is a Soviet long-range narrow-body jetliner conceived in 1960 by Ilyushin. As successor to the popular turboprop Il-18 and with capacity for almost 200 passengers and crew, the Il-62 was the world's largest jet airliner when first flown in 1963. One of four pioneering long-range designs, it was the first such type to be operated by the Soviet Union and a number of allied nations.
The Il-62 entered Aeroflot civilian service on 15 September 1967 with an inaugural passenger flight from Moscow to Montreal, and remained the standard long-range airliner for the Soviet Union for several decades. It was the first Soviet pressurised aircraft with non-circular cross-section fuselage and ergonomic passenger doors, and the first Soviet jet with six-abreast seating and international-standard position lights.
Over 30 nations operated the Il-62 with over 80 examples exported and others having been leased by Soviet-sphere and several Western airlines. The Il-62M variant became the longest-serving model in its airliner class. Special VIP and other conversions were also developed and used as head-of-state transport by some 14 countries. However, because it is expensive to operate compared to newer generation airliners, the number in service was greatly reduced after the 2008 Great Recession. The Il-62's successors include the wide-bodied Il-86 and Il-96, both of which were made in much smaller numbers and neither of which was widely exported.

Development

The Ilyushin OKB presented a proposal for a four-engined long-range jet airliner in February 1960, receiving the go-ahead from the Soviet Council of Ministers on 18 June 1960, with the Kuznetsov Design Bureau being instructed at the same time to develop the NK-8 turbofan to power the new airliner. The official specification required that the airliner, designated Il-62, must carry 165 economy-class passengers over a distance of 4,500 km or 100 first class passengers over 6,700 km.
The Il-62 replaced the fast turboprop Tu-114 on long range routes. As the Tu-114 was just entering service when the Il-62 was on the drawing board, Ilyushin had time for an unhurried design, test, and development programme. This was useful, since the Il-62 did call for significant development.
The Il-62 and the British Vickers VC10 are the only commercial airliners with four engines fitted in twinned/paired nacelles by the sides of, and beneath, a "T" shaped empennage, although the Lockheed JetStar business jet shares this configuration. In the case of Ilyushin, the configuration was dictated by TsAGI, the Soviet Union's aerospace agency, since Ilyushin's design bureau lacked the resources to engage in configuration studies. This layout allowed the wing design to be optimised for aerodynamic efficiency, without being cluttered by having to carry engines. In addition, the rear-mounted engines reduced engine noise in the cabin and allowed smaller vertical tail surfaces. These advantages are balanced by a number of drawbacks. The wing structure, without wing mounted engines to relieve the wing bending moment, needed to be heavier, as did the rear fuselage structure, which had to carry the engines. In addition, aerodynamic wash from the wing blankets the tail when the nose is pitched up leading the aircraft into a condition known as deep stall. This called for complex and unreliable automatic stall warning systems such as stick shakers and stick pushers to prevent the aircraft from stalling, although the Il-62's wing was designed to prevent deep stall.
Early aircraft display an evolution from thin or thick kinked leading inboard edges to the ultimate thick and straight 1966 shape. The characteristic "dog-tooth" also moved until fixed before production began. The engine installation also evolved, with the engines' longitudinal axes canted by 3 degrees from the horizontal, addition of thrust reversers to the outer engines, and slimming down of the entire installation as production began.
The prototype was grossly underpowered as its intended NK-8 engines were not ready, and small Lyulka AL-7 turbojet engines had to be installed temporarily. The prototype with AL-7PB engines first flew on 3 January 1963, but crashed after clipping a perimeter fence during a maximum weight testing flight of the development program. The production Il-62 was powered by the originally intended rear-mounted Kuznetsov NK-8-4 engines. The first Il-62 powered with NK-8 engines first flew in 1964.
The Il-62M variant has more powerful, more efficient, and quieter Soloviev D-30KU engines and a fin fuel tank. Beneath the skin, the Il-62M has simpler and lighter single-slotted flaps and incremental aerodynamic improvements. Most important of these was the addition of spoilerons and the ability to use idle reverse thrust in flight during the final approach so as to shorten the landing run. All but one example in service today are Il-62M. In 1978, the Il-62MK was further developed to seat up to 198 passengers and carry some two tonnes more payload and/or fuel than the Il-62M.
Other versions were also planned, including a stretched version to seat up to 250 passengers and a shrunk version to suit smaller airfields.
The Il-62 has tricycle landing gear with an additional lightweight gear strut at the rear of the fuselage which extends when the aircraft reaches its parking position. Aircraft with rear-mounted engines are usually tail-heavy when sitting empty on the ground, and to prevent the aircraft from tipping up on its tail, various devices are used for supporting the tail - from simple "pogo stick" fixed struts on small aircraft, to light-weight extendable struts. Aircraft like DC-9 or Boeing 727 use an airstair door under their tail which serves the dual purpose of a tail support as well as an extra door for passenger loading.
The Il-62 is the largest airliner ever built with all-manual flight controls, using steel cables, rods, pulleys, aerodynamic and weight balances, and trim tabs. The Il-62 also has a forward-mounted tank serving as a water ballast. This may be used when the aircraft flies empty or lightly loaded. If this is a fact, it would rank the Il-62 alongside other airliners that use ballast, notably the French Caravelle and the Soviet Tu-154. Due to the rear-mounted powerplants, the wings are aerodynamically clean, and takeoff and landing aids are employed without the disturbing effect of engine nacelles, resulting in free airflow over the dorsal wing surface. This allows the aircraft to fly through air turbulence of 16–18 m/s without affecting its stability.
Another key Il-62 trademark is the "saw tooth" on the wing leading edge. This prominent feature acts as an aerodynamic fence vortex generator, and fixed leading edge droop/slat/flap. It ensures vice-free behaviour at high angles of attack and assists efficient long-range cruise. The saw tooth removes the need for hydraulic controls, stick shakers, and stick pushers. Later models of the VC10 also adopted this feature, in their case closer to the wing tips.
Early NK-8-4-engined Il-62s suffered from performance problems including fatigue and overheating issues with the engines, sometimes leading to false fire alarms which could possibly cause the crew to accidentally shut down paired engines to prevent contiguous engine and fuselage damage. Flying with only two paired engines on the same side would, however, render the aircraft unbalanced and difficult to control. Subsequent modifications to the Il-62 and the VC10 largely rectified this problem. There were two fatal Il-62 losses involving engine failure, both occurring with aircraft owned by LOT Polish Airlines, which had also leased a number of Il-62s from Aeroflot and Tarom. The higher fatality accident was a fully laden Il-62M Flight 5055 on 9 May 1987 which experienced a rear fuselage fire that possibly went unnoticed by the crew, hence their decision not to land at one of two nearby airports. Control of the plane was eventually lost on the return flight to Warsaw, most likely due to one of the auxiliary fuel tanks fitted to some LOT Il-62s having ignited. The other was an unmodified NK-8-4-powered Il-62 Flight 007 which crashed on 14 March 1980 with 87 fatalities after being fitted with an engine that had previously caused vibration problems when used on two other LOT aircraft.
Powerplant failure of the type that afflicted the LOT aircraft was extremely rare because bearing wear is generally identified by vibration tests during maintenance. At the time, however, LOT did not have equipment to test or fault-diagnose engines of the size used in the Il-62. Unfortunately this meant that any potential problem might not be identified between overhauls. There were other known instances of engine failure, but these did not result in loss of control. The LOT accidents involving different engine types was a fatal crash-rate 30 times higher than the Il-62 average. At least one other LOT Soloviev D-30-equipped aircraft also suffered a similar engine failure around this time. After 1987, LOT introduced turbine vibration-detecting equipment and shortened the time between inspections. It also adopted the dual flight control system used on some other Il-62s and deleted the auxiliary engine-pod fuel tanks. These planes were subsequently sold to Air Ukraine in 1991/1992 which operated them until the airline closed in 2000. In 2010, 30 years after the loss of Flight 007, an investigation of previously unreleased IPN archives at Instytut Pamięci Narodowej revealed that during the industrial unrest of the 1980s LOT had been instructed by the PRL authorities to effect operational cost savings by over-exploitation of service life of its jet engines.

Special Il-62 conversions

Several special conversions were made to the basic Il-62, the main ones being the Il-62 and Il-62M salon VIP versions used by heads of state, and the Il-62M airborne command aircraft used by the Russian government. Although the Il-62 had been introduced during Khrushchev's time, it was during the Brezhnev era that Ilyushin was asked to develop the salon versions which have been used by Russian leaders ever since right up to the Putin years. The VIP examples were fitted with conference rooms and rest areas, rooms for the retinue, and service personnel and bodyguards, while the secure communication equipment enabled contact with Moscow and other cities from any part of the globe. Examples were also delivered to other countries including Czechoslovakia, Germany, North Korea, Sudan and Ukraine.
An airborne command Il-62M was customised for the emergency response agency EMERCOM to provide evacuation transport for Russian citizens from foreign countries and act as airborne command post for these and other emergency situations. It operates in conjunction with at least one other Il-62M and a fleet of Il-76, Il-76TD waterbombers, An-72 and helicopters which have operated in some 60 countries and is credited with having saved 50,000 lives since the agency was created in 1994. Apart from basic interior changes, RA-86570 features hush-kitted engines and Honeywell electronics with global communication ability via satellite, and an Inmarsat system. The aircraft was used as a command post during the combat of forest fires in the Far East, when dealing with the Chechen terrorist attack in Kaspiysk when an apartment building was blown up, and to bring a Russian Deputy Foreign Minister to Sharjah in 1996 and from there collecting the crew of an Il-76 freighter who had escaped from the Taliban militia in Afghanistan.

Design



The Il-62 is a conventional all-metal low-wing monoplane of riveted sectional semi-monocoque construction to fail-safe design principles. Its service life was initially set at 30,000 flight hours and subject to extensions and curtailments according to the quality of service procedures, inspection and manufacturer's bulletins. The aircraft features pressurised cabin and freight holds, duplex all-mechanical flight controls, though with twin electric motors for tailplane incidence control; hydraulic nosewheel steering, landing gear and tail strut actuation, and wheel brakes. The Il-62M has spoilers and lift dumpers which extend automatically upon landing and are hydraulically operated. Control surfaces include a variable-incidence tailplane with dynamically and weight-compensated elevators with trim tabs, triple-section tabbed ailerons which are interlinked with a torsion bar, spoilerons, spoilers and lift dumpers, and pneumatically actuated thrust reversers on the two outboard engines.
27 V AC electrics are used throughout with a TA-6 auxiliary power unit in the lower tailcone plus backup lead-zinc batteries.
The aircraft uses conventional hot air de-icing using engine bleed air. Its sea level is equivalent to 2,400 m above mean sea level and thereafter reducing to the equivalent of 2,400 m to cruise altitude. It was originally built with no automatic oxygen masks; emergency supply comprises hatrack-housed oxygen bottles and masks for manual distribution to passengers by cabin crew. Since 1997, most aircraft have been retrofitted with automatic oxygen supply systems with drop-down masks.
Its avionics include a Polyot-1 automatic flight control system, Doppler navigational radar replaced by triplex INSS on Il-62M after 1978 and by GPS navigation sets on many aircraft after 1991, triple VHF and HF flightdeck radios, automatic direction finders, Soviet and Western instrument landing system receivers, vertical omnidirectional radio range and radio beacon receivers, duplex radio altimeters, automatic radio transponders, a full ICAO-standard navigation lights fit, cabin tannoy and intercom systems. Soviet/Russian and Warsaw Pact sovereign examples are additionally fitted with triplex "Odd Rods" IFF air defence transponders identifiable by three closely spaced short aerials.
Emergency evacuation systems include inflatable life rafts and manually extendable canvas evacuation slides. Most aircraft are now retrospectively fitted with emergency floor lighting strips and some aircraft equipped with automatically inflatable evacuation slides. Fire extinguishers are sited in engine nacelles, flightdeck compartment, cabin crew rest areas and toilets.
The Il-62 offers accommodation for up to 198 passengers in a single-class layout, seated six-abreast at 84 cm seat pitch in two cabins separated by a vestibule, galley/pantry and cabin crew rest area. There are three toilets, forward, midships, and aft. It has a buffet/bar and a further cabin crew rest area in a vestibule forward, with a further optional cabin crew rest area aft. Typical mixed-class accommodation ranges between 128 and 144, seated four or six abreast, and a common single aisle configuration for long distance Aeroflot examples was first class 3 rows, business class 4 rows, economy class 17 rows. In this configuration, the central aisle in business and economy classes is quite narrow. A first class compartment is optionally sited aft of forward entry door or just forward of midships entry door, with an economy compartment further forward in the latter case. "Skycot" fitments are located in hatracks, while later Il-62Ms feature enclosed hatracks. Customer-optionable interior fitments. No in-flight entertainment systems are available except a public-address system that may be coupled to an open-reel or audio cassette player. Individual aircraft were experimentally fitted with television sets for Soviet-standard videotape entertainment during the 1970s. Some aircraft were retrospectively fitted with Western in-flight entertainment systems after 1991.

Allegations of espionage

A sideline to the Il-62 story concerns alleged industrial espionage. As the Il-62 was developed at about the same time as the VC10, to which it bears a marked external resemblance, British Cold War commentators implied that the VC10 design may have been copied by dubbing the Il-62 the "VC10-ski.", but no evidence of this was ever presented. There are significant differences between the Il-62 and the VC10, as the Russian type is larger, lifts a greater load, and is designed for use exclusively at developed airports whereas the British type can adapt to "up-country" bases. Unlike the VC10, the Il-62 uses conservative technology, such as mechanical control surface linkages, and is an entirely civilian machine, whereas the VC10 was designed to serve as both a civilian airliner and military airlifter and freighter. The Il-62 found more buyers and was built in much larger numbers than the VC10, and as of November 2018 many examples are still in service. On the other hand, the VC10 has been retired from that role. China and Czechoslovakia were two countries that cancelled orders for the VC10 and purchased the Il-62 instead.

Operational history

After the introduction of the Il-62M, Aeroflot gradually upgraded and later replaced its fleet of NK-8 powered Il-62s with the newer Soloviev D-30 KU-powered Il-62M. Coupled with engine nacelle and other modifications, greatly reduced the chance of contiguous powerplant damage. By mid-1973, the airline was operating 60 Il-62s, and by 1989 this had increased to 165. The Il-62M had a dispatch rate with Aeroflot of 97% with some examples logging as many as 17 flight hrs/day, and it was described as the most reliable type in the fleet at that time. It set several international records in its class, mostly exemplifying a range capability far in excess of the conservative Aeroflot calculations applied in Soviet times. Some of these records were set by an all-woman crew of five captained by Iraida Vertiprahova. With 10 tonnes of freight, the Il-62M had a maximum range of 10,300 km compared to 9,412 km for the VC10 carrying the same weight. With a 23 tonne payload, the Il-62M range was 8000 km, compared to 6,920 km for a Boeing 707 with maximum payload. Because of its capacity, the plane has historically been used for emergency civilian evacuation flights, one of the most notable being the landing of an Aeroflot-registered Il-62 at Santiago Airport, Chile on the night of 10 September 1973 in order to evacuate 147 Cuban embassy personnel. In April 2015 two EMERCOM IL-62Ms were used to evacuate around 900 foreign nationals and Yemenis from Sanaa during the Saudi-led military operation against Yemen.
The Il-62 was said to be well regarded by pilots and passengers alike, especially for its strong directional stability in high turbulence, smooth cruising ability and very quiet interior in cruise mode due partly to engine placement. Although the original IL-62 was rated for a service life of 23 years and was criticised for heavy fuel consumption, upgraded M versions are sometimes rated for 50 years and have greatly improved operational economics. One of the drawbacks of the original Il-62 design was the lack of a cargo bay roller transfer system, which necessitated manual loading of pre-packaged baggage and cargo thus making preparation of the aircraft rather slow. There is relatively easy access to all serviceable mechanical components including the engines whilst the plane's thrust reversal capabilities allows reverse taxiing without the need for tow-vehicles. Powerplant overhaul intervals varied between specifications and maintenance procedures and between the thrust reverse-capable outer engines and the inner ones. Czech Airlines operated an early Il-62 on a proving basis up to 3000 hrs between overhauls, which was well beyond the recommended intervals which were nearer 2000 hrs although Interflug were able to designate up to 5000 hrs with their service facilities. Subsequent upgrades to some Il-62Ms provided for 6000 hr overhaul intervals. Later examples of the Il-62M remain in regular commercial service, and the type also sees continued use as a VIP/head of state transport.
Although the plane's safety record does not equal that of later airliners, there were no fatal accidents involving an Il-62 between 1989 and 2009 during which time the highest number of planes were in service. With successive Il-62M upgrades and improved avionics, including triplex inertial navigation systems and enhanced flight controls to cope with poor visibility, the plane gained a reputation as a very safe airliner whose record compares favorably with similar airliners, most of which are no longer in civilian use. Its total hull loss rate is lower than those of the Boeing 707 and DC-8, and near that of the VC10/Super VC10 although the VC10 was only in civilian service for 16 years, and only 40 of 54 airframes were built as airliners. Several Il-62/M accidents over the first decades of operation mainly involved runway overruns or aborted takeoffs. The braking system employed the reverse thrust of the outer engines only, and if for some reason one or other failed to engage, the aircraft could become difficult to steer for an unprepared pilot. In seven takeoff or landing accidents there were no fatalities, a testament to the high level of structural integrity, and in two cases with landing-related fatalities these were due to the aircraft colliding with structures near the runway . The Il-62/M fuselage features a strengthened hull with 'ski' keel originally designed to allow for an undercarriage-up emergency landing. The trade-off for the reinforced airframe is the relatively high fuel consumption and some airlines such as Interflug modified their planes to reduce fuel consumption.
Production is said to have continued until 1995, although continuous production ended in 1993. Including prototypes, total production is surmised as being 289. However, the factory states 292.
Four aircraft remained unsold at the factory as of 1997, while the last delivery was reportedly RA-86586 of Magma, built in 1995, but only delivered in 1999 as a result of tariffs imposed on imported western aircraft. The last airframe was built in 2004 for the Sudanese government.
The Il-62M variant is still listed as an available option on the product page of Ilyushin's website, which may imply the existence of additional incomplete or unsold airframes.
During the Syrian Civil War, Russian Air Force Il-62M were observed flying between Russia and Syria. Starting at the end of 2015, with the Russian military intervention in the Syrian Civil War, Russian Air Force Il-62M were frequently reported departing and landing at the Khmeimim Air Base in Latakia, Syria, moving materiel and personnel in and out of Syria.

Variants

;Il-62 : Initial production version, powered by four 23,150-lb Kuznetsov NK-8 turbofan engines, accommodation for a crew of five and 186 passengers.
;Il-62M : Improved version, powered by four 24,250-lb Soloviev D-30KU turbofan engines, accommodation for a crew of five and 174 passengers, equipped with containerised baggage and freight system, modified wing spoilers and a revised flight deck, plus increased fuel capacity.
;Il-62MK : Medium-range version, powered by four 24,250-lb Soloviev D-30KU turbofan engines, accommodation for a crew of five and 195 passengers, equipped with strengthened wings and landing gear for operations at higher gross weights.
;Il-62MGr : Cargo version of Il-62M

Operators

Civil operators

As of July 2017, a total of 6 Il-62 aircraft remained in passenger or government service.
Over 30 countries have operated the Il-62 since 1967, although exports did not begin until initial Aeroflot needs had been met. First exports were in late 1969 to CSA Czechoslovak Airlines. The pattern was similar with the Il-62M, of which the first export was delayed until 1977. Among Eastern Bloc nations, Bulgaria and Hungary did not operate the Il-62 series, although Hungary briefly leased one example pending Boeing 767 services in 1990. As curiosity, Malev was a first and only foreign airlines to order the IL-62 according to the October 1967 issue of Flight International. In 1968 the new political trend called "New Economic Mechanism" introduced by the Hungarian Council of Ministers led to the deletion of the order, because of financing problems. This was due, among other more important reasons, to heavy anti-Ilyushin lobbying by Tupolev in the former country and to commercial considerations in both countries whose airlines preferred to concentrate on short and medium range routes, that was equal to the low demand for the long-haul service.
The German Democratic Republic, Czechoslovakia and Cuba were amongst the largest foreign customers for the Il-62. The former East German airline Interflug owned 24 aircraft: 21 in civilian service and three for airforce and presidential use, including six Il-62s, 16 Il-62Ms and two rare Il-62MKs. Czech Airlines operated 21 planes between 1969 and 1997, including 15 Il-62s and six Il-62Ms, of which 15 were registered under the famous CSA 'OK jet' designation, and six were leased from Aeroflot. Some of these planes were still operational in 2012. Cuba operated 27 different Il-62s, of which 12 were leased either from Aeroflot or Tarom and 15 were owned by Cubana which became a long-term operator with its first Il-62M purchase in 1977. After 2000 Cubana refurbished its remaining planes for international routes, on which they operated until March 2011. Poland operated 23 Il-62s and Il-62Ms, including aircraft leased from Aeroflot and Tarom. The largest non-state operator of the Il-62 was Russian-based Domodedovo Airlines which acquired 45 planes from Aeroflot that were used for domestic services including continuous operations on the world's longest internal route, Moscow to Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, a distance of.
From 1970, Air France and Japan Air Lines wet-leased a number of Aeroflot Il-62s for long-haul services, and from 1971, KLM Royal Dutch Airlines operated nine Aeroflot-registered Il-62s for the Moscow-Amsterdam route.
Due to strained relations between the USSR and US during the 1980s, in 1984 Aeroflot coordinated with Irish carrier Aer Lingus to use Shannon airport as a hub for connecting flights from Moscow and Leningrad to link with the Irish carrier's New York routes. Aeroflot was also granted rights to use Shannon for flights to Cuba and South America. From 1992 Irish tour operators contracted Aeroflot to carry tourists to the eastern US and later to the Caribbean, Central America and Mexico, using Il-62Ms. On any given day, Shannon hosted up to eight Il-62s and Il-86s. By 1995/1996, Shannon was handling 2,400 Aeroflot transit flights carrying 250,000 passengers per annum with Aeroflot crews being housed near Shannon airport. By 1995, direct flights between Moscow and the US became possible and the use of Shannon as a hub declined. For its US west-coast air links Aeroflot Il-62s flew east to Anchorage from Moscow and several cities in the Russian Far East, often continuing on to San Francisco. Trans-Pacific Il-62 flights between the Russian Far East and Anchorage continued until 2000.
Il-62M/MKs remained popular for civilian service in Russia up until the economic recession of 2008. In late 2008, Russian-operated planes were removed from scheduled passenger operations due to a severe economic crisis affecting major operators Interavia Airlines, Dalavia and Domodedovo Airlines. As a result, Rossiya became the largest operator, but it uses the Il-62 for government service only. By September 2009 a total of 38 Il-62s remained in service worldwide, only one of which was the original series aircraft operating with Russian Air Force whilst others were M or MK-series aircraft. In 2011 Cubana retired its last civilian examples 33 years after receiving its first IL-62. Some other airlines and governments also operate small numbers of the type. In 2013 DETA Air ceased operations of Il-62M.
Il-62 at China Aviation Museum, Beijing
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The aircraft has seen military use with the air force of East Germany and later the united Germany and is believed to have been operated by the air forces of other countries including Cuba, Gambia, Georgia, Libya, North Korea, Russia, Romania and Ukraine. It is used as an emergency response aircraft by the Russian government. In addition to military use, it has been used as a personnel or head-of-state transport by Russia, Ukraine, East Germany, Georgia, Uzbekistan, Gambia, Mozambique, Sudan, Cuba, North Korea, and Czechoslovakia, the government of which used an Il-62 and three Il-62Ms between 1974 and 1996. Some head-of-state examples were produced in VIP interior configuration whilst others were standard civilian versions.
In North Korea, two IL-62Ms are owned by the North Korean government. Both of which have government liveries and VIP interior configurations and are given the call sign "Chammae". One is coded as "Chammae-1" which transports Kim Jong Un while the other, Chammae-2, provides transport to high level government officials and VIPs. Chammae-2 was seen transporting officials of the high-level DPRK delegation including Kim Yong Nam and Kim Yo Jong to Incheon International Airport in Seoul, South Korea for the 2018 Winter Olympics. Both aircraft are part of Air Koryo's inventory of four IL-62Ms.

Current Operators

Since its first flight in 1963 there have been 12 fatal accidents during civilian service, namely: nine crashes, two landing overruns and an aborted takeoff. The complete list of incidents include eight of Il-62M.
As of July 2012 there had been 23 hull losses from all causes including prototype testing, fires, runway overruns, navigational errors, and non-operational incidents, 48% of which did not involve fatalities, with 1,141 fatalities total. This figure and the list below includes planes that were still operable but were deemed uneconomic to return to service due to their age and/or flight hours.
Within the group of comparable airliners the Il-62M had the lowest hull loss rate.
There were no fatal accidents involving an Il-62 between 1989 and 2009.
DateTail numberLocationCasualtiesBrief descriptionRefs
25 2 1965СССР-06156Zhukovsky Airfield, USSR10/17Crashed on takeoff during a test flight at maximum takeoff weight. The aircraft acquired a nose-high attitude and climbed to, collided with a concrete fence and struck the ground.
16 6 1972SU-ARNAlmaza Air Base, Egypt0/59Overran the runway after landing at the wrong airport.
14 8 1972DM-SEAKönigs Wusterhausen, East Germany156/156Lost control and crashed after the tail section failed in flight. Hot air at escaping from an unsecured air-con coupling melted electrical insulation and caused a short circuit that started a fire in the cargo bay. After losing elevator function, the crew decided to return to Berlin but were unaware of the fire that eventually destroyed the tail section, rendering the aircraft uncontrollable. The crash was the worst in German history.
13 10 1972СССР-86671Sheremetyevo, USSR174/174Aeroflot Flight 217 crashed 1 km short of the runway during the third attempt to land at night in poor weather. The cause was not determined. The Sheremetyevo airport ILS system was inoperative at the time of the accident.
20 8 1975OK-DBFnear Damascus, Syria126/128ČSA Flight 540 experienced a controlled flight into terrain at midnight some from the airport. The crew appeared possibly confused the QNH and QFE altimeter settings due to language misunderstanding with the control tower.
27 5 1977СССР-86614Havana, Cuba/70Aeroflot Flight 331 struck power transmission lines and crashed 1 km short of the runway while attempting to land in poor weather.
14 3 1980SP-LAAnear Okęcie Airport, Poland87/87LOT Flight 7 crashed due to a loss of control caused by uncontained failure of engine #2 which occurred after full thrust was applied during a missed approach from New York to Warsaw. Engine debris penetrated the fuselage causing damage to engine #1 & #3, and severed control rods for the rudder and elevators. The failed engine had reportedly caused vibrational problems when previously installed in two other LOT aircraft, and the turbine disc may have been already damaged when the engine was fitted. See discussion in Development section.
6 07 1982СССР-86513Mendeleyevo, USSR90/90Aeroflot Flight 411 stalled and crashed after the pilot shut down both left side engines due to fire warnings. The unbalanced aircraft became difficult to control and crashed. Investigations later showed that the warning lights had been a false alarm, possibly caused by a hot-air bleed leak.
29 9 1982СССР-86470Luxembourg7/77Aeroflot Flight 343 crashed on landing after the thrust reverser on engine #1 failed. The aircraft veered off the runway and continued into a ravine.
1 07 1983P-889Labé, Guinea23/23A Chosonminhang flight crashed in the Fouta Djallon mountains near Labé while operating a charter flight from Pyongyang Sunan International Airport to Conakry International Airport.
9 05 1987SP-LBGWarsaw, Poland183/183LOT Polish Airlines Flight 5055 crashed following an uncontained engine failure and resultant in-flight fire. Engine #2 exploded during initial climb 25 minutes after takeoff, causing damage to engine #1 and a fire in the cargo hold. Landing at Gdansk or Modlin airfields were abandoned in favour of Warsaw. The crew dumped half the fuel but control was lost during the return flight and the aircraft crashed. The #2 engine turbine shaft bearings had been improperly manufactured with 13 rollers instead of 26, causing overheating and seizure, destroying the shaft. The low-pressure turbine spun out of control and disintegrated. The crash was the worst involving an Il-62. See 'Development' section.
17 6 1989DDR-SEWSchönefeld Airport, East Germany/113Overran the runway on takeoff and crashed due to jammed elevators and rudder. The pilot aborted the takeoff and when instructed to apply reverse thrust, the flight engineer mistakenly switched the engines off. Interflug's fleet of Il-62s were briefly grounded for elevator/rudder mechanism checks, but cleared for use the following day. Cause of crash was traced to maintenance error.
3 09 1989CU-T1281Havana, Cuba/126Cubana de Aviación Flight 9046 crashed on climbout in bad weather. The crew attempted takeoff in heavy rain and wind by reducing the flap setting from 30° to 15°, but this reduced the ability of the aircraft to gain altitude. Shortly after takeoff and while still at low altitude, the plane was caught in powerful downdrafts that forced one of the wings to strike navigational aerials and then a hillside before the plane crashed into a residential area.
1 07 1990СССР-86456Yakutsk Airport, USSR0/109Overran the runway on landing after the flight engineer mistakenly selected takeoff thrust instead of reverse thrust on engines #1 and #4.
21 11 1990СССР-86613Magan Airport, USSR0/189Aeroflot Flight 95 overran the short runway onto rough boggy terrain after landing too late following a diversion. Although there were no fatalities, the fuselage and undercarriage were severely damaged.
1 10 1992СССР-86703Domodedovo, Russia0Burned out after a cigarette was dropped during refueling. Aircraft was written off and broken up in March 1993. The date of the incident is unknown but occurred in October 1992.
24 4 1998YR-IRDAtatürk Airport, Turkey0/73An engine exploded before takeoff, starting a fire that severely damaged the rear fuselage. Aircraft written off. The aircraft was operated by Trans-Asia on behalf of TAROM.
11 11 1998RA-86564Anchorage, US0/12Struck by an Asiana Airlines Boeing 747 that was taxiing too fast. Written off.
23 10 2002RA-86452Manas International Airport, Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan0/9Veered off the runway on landing. The aircraft's center of gravity was too far back, and on touchdown, the nose refused to come down. The crew retracted the thrust reversers and the nose came down but when the stabilizer trim was increased the nose pitched up again. The aircraft ran off the runway and collided with a concrete obstruction.
29 3 20065A-DKRDomodedovo, Russia0/6Engines mistakenly switched in takeoff mode during landing. No fatalities.
20 4 2008CU-T1283Santo-Domingo, Dominican Republic0/117Cubana Flight 201: Engine #2 suffered an uncontained failure during initial climb at 25,000 ft. Rear fuselage sustained debris damage resulting in loss of cabin pressure and compromised fuel supply to engine #1, which was shut down. The aircraft landed safely at the airport of departure and was later flown to Havana but was deemed uneconomic to return to service
24 7 2009UP-I6208Mashhad, Iran16/173The sole fatal incident involving an Il-62 since 1989, Aria Air Flight 1525 struck a concrete perimeter wall following a runway overrun at excessive landing speed. This aircraft had originally been in service with Interflug followed by Aeroflot and Uzbekistan Airways before being acquired by Aria Air.

Aircraft on display

As the first long-range jet airliner to be put into service by a number of nations, some retired Il-62s have been converted into museums and other uses in countries such as the Czech Republic, Germany, Austria, Cuba and China. The best known example was the Il-62 "DDR-SEG" from the former East German airline Interflug. On 23 October 1989, DDR-SEG was intentionally landed on a short grass airfield of a hilltop Stölln/Rhinow in a famous but potentially dangerous manoeuvre. Fire trucks and ambulance crews were positioned on hand for the landing but were not needed. The jet is used to commemorate the site of the fatal crash of Otto Lilienthal at the Gollenberg hill. Nicknamed "Lady Agnes" after Lilienthal's wife, it is now a museum with the fuselage divided between the Lilienthal collection and a popular wedding registry. In July 1983, another landing of an IL-62 on unprepared ground took place at Monino, Russia, when Ilyushin OKB Chief Test Pilot Stanislav Bliznyuk delivered CCCP-86670 to the Monino outdoor Air Force Museum.

Specifications (Il-62)