Aeroflot Flight 2022  Aeroflot Flight 2022 was a scheduled Soviet domestic passenger flight between Vilnius Airport in Lithuania and Vnukovo International Airport in Moscow, Russia that crashed on 16 December 1973, killing all 51 people on board. The five hundred mile flight suffered a loss of control as a result of a malfunction of its elevator, causing it to crash as it made its final descent into Moscow. At the time of the crash it was the worst accident in aviation history involving a Tupolev Tu-124, since it entered service with Aeroflot in 1962. The aircraft involved in the accident was a Tupolev Tu-124V, registered CCCP-45061, to Aeroflot. The Tu-124V was a variant of the original Tu-124 which had been introduced in 1962. The 'V' variant of the Tu-124 modified the aircraft to be able to seat 56 passengers, instead of the original 44, and also had increased range and payload capacity. CCCP-45061 was equipped with two Soloviev D-20P turbofan engines and had first flown in 1964. It was assigned to Aeroflot's Lithuania division. At the time of the accident, the aircraft had sustained 14,903 flight hours and 13,832 pressurization cycles. Six crew members were aboard Aeroflot Flight 2022. The flight crew consisted of:  The crew also included a junior police lieutenant as a sky marshal (they were added after the hijacking of Aeroflot Flight 244 in 1970). All of the passengers were Soviet citizens, with the exception of one who was a West German citizen. Majority of the passengers were Lithuanians. They included four noted Lithuanian pediatricians, including , who traveled to a medical conference in Kharkiv. Bodies of the victims were cremated in Moscow on 21 December. The four doctors were buried in a public ceremony attended by Lithuanian First Secretary Antanas Sniečkus in Antakalnis Cemetery. At 18:10 MSK on 16 December 1973, CCCP-45061 took off from Vilnius Airport in Lithuania SSR and proceeded east on a flight to Moscow-Vnukovo Airport in Russia with six crew and 45 passengers on board. Flight 2022 climbed to a cruising altitude of 7,800 meters (25,600 ft) and at 19:03 MSK air traffic controllers in Moscow gave the pilots clearance to begin a descent to 5,700 meters (18,700 ft).