TABSO Flight 101
A TABSO Ilyushin Il-18, similar to the accident aircraft | |
| Accident | |
|---|---|
| Date | 24 November 1966 |
| Summary | Controlled flight into terrain, bad weather and pilot error, official cause undetermined |
| Site | Bratislava, Czechoslovakia 48°14′40″N 17°09′55″E / 48.24444°N 17.16528°E |
| Aircraft | |
| Aircraft type | Ilyushin Il-18V |
| Operator | TABSO |
| Registration | LZ-BEN |
| Flight origin | Sofia Airport, Sofia |
| 1st stopover | Budapest Ferihegy International Airport, Budapest |
| Last stopover | Prague Ruzyně International Airport, Prague |
| Destination | Berlin Schönefeld Airport, East Berlin |
| Occupants | 82 |
| Passengers | 74 |
| Crew | 8 |
| Fatalities | 82 |
| Survivors | 0 |
TABSO Flight 101 was a scheduled service of the Bulgarian national airline from Sofia, Bulgaria, via Budapest, Hungary, and Prague, Czechoslovakia (today's Czech Republic), to Berlin Schönefeld Airport in East Germany (now absorbed into unified Germany). The service was operated by the airline's 1960s' flagship equipment, the Ilyushin Il-18B airliner. On Thursday 24 November 1966, due to bad weather the aircraft was diverted to Bratislava airport, but when the flight resumed, the aircraft crashed into the surrounding hills shortly after takeoff, with the loss of 82 lives. The crash site is within modern-day Slovakia, and is considered that country's deadliest aviation disaster.