A Tupolev Tu-104A passenger plane sustained substantial damage in a landing accident at Ust-Orda, Russia. There were 61 passengers and seven crew members on board. Three crew members were killed. The airplane operated Aeroflot flight 05 from Moscow-Vnukovo (VNO) to Khabarovsk (KHV) with en route stops at Omsk (OMS) and Irkutsk (IKT). On takeoff from Omsk the weather forecast for Irkutsk was fine with a visibility of 4-10 km with no deterioration expected. En route, at 160 km from the destination, the weather conditions had deteriorated with a cloud cover at 160 m and snowfall. This was below minima for Tu-104 aircraft. It was decided to divert to Ust-Orda. Another Tu-104 had already diverted there and the crew reported clouds at 200-250 m, snow fall and a visibility of 3 km. After breaking through the clouds the landing lights were turned on. There were issues with the nose gear light, forcing the captain to abort the approach in order to check out the landing lights. At a height of 10-15 m in level flight above the runway about two kilometers from its start the captain initiated a left turn to climb. After turning 70ø, he saw the rapidly approaching ground. The plane struck up sloping terrain. A fire broke out.