An Ilyushin 18V passenger plane was destroyed when it flew into the side of a mountain 32 km northeast of Samarkand Airport (SKD). Seven crew members and 85 passengers were killed, one crew member and 13 passengers survived the accident. The airplane departed Tashkent Airport (TAS) at 14:11 Moscow Time on a domestic service to Samarkand (SKD). Cruising altitude was 5100 metres. At 15:33 the flight was cleared to descend to 2700 m and later further down to 2400 m. At 15:40 the controller reported that the flight was 31 km from Samarkand and cleared the crew to descend to 600 m. The crew did not verify if this distance was correct and continued the descent through clouds. At 15:42 the airplane collided with a snowy mountain slope at a height of 1500 m. The airplane broke in five parts.