Aeroflot flight 15 was a regular passenger service from Moscow’s Domodedovo Airport to Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, with an intermediate stop at Krasnoyarsk. At 22:03 hours local time, after having refueled at Krasnoyarsk, the Ilyushin Il-18 departed for the last leg of the flight. The aircraft climbed to the cruising altitude of 8000 meters. Last radio contact was at 22:43 with an unintelligible two-second radio transmission. At that time the aircraft was in an emergency descent with an average vertical speed of 17-56 m/s (3360-11000 ft/min). After reaching an altitude of 3000 meters, the vertical speed increased to 50-125 m/s (9850 – 24600 ft/min) and the aircraft turned right. Destructive overloads caused the aircraft to break up in mid-air at an altitude of 650 meters above ground level. At that time the aircraft was descending inverted at a speed of 890 km/h. One passenger survived the accident miraculously. His seat had separated together with a large section of airframe skin. PROBABLE CAUSE: Unknown. It was considered possible that a fuel leak had occurred in the left wing, causing a fire.