ČSA Flight 540 was a regularly scheduled international flight from Prague, Czechoslovakia to Tehran, Iran via Damascus, Syria and Baghdad, Iraq. On 20 August 1975, the flight, operated by an Ilyushin Il-62, crashed 17 km (11 mi) from Damascus International Airport while descending at night in clear weather, breaking up and catching fire on impact. 126 of the 128 passengers and crew died in the accident, making it Syria's worst air disaster and the worst air disaster for the airline. Following the crash, the Czechoslovak government sent their condolences to the victims and Damascus.
Aircraft and crew
The aircraft involved was an Ilyushin Il-62 with registration OK-DBF. It was produced in 1973 and delivered to the airline in the same year. The aircraft was named Brno Trade Fair.
At the time of the accident, the flight captain was Ján Gajdoš (54) with 19,000 flight hours (circa 3000 on Il-62), who led the crew consisting of co-pilot Stanislav Žižka (50) with 15,000 flight hours (circa 2500 on Il-62), navigator František Aulík (43), and flight engineers Karel Hasman (48) and Vladimír Hejduk, who was just off duty. Purser Miroslav Peták was joined by a team of five cabin crew. In total, there were 117 passengers and 11 crew on board.
Accident
The plane crashed in an area of high desert approximately 17 km from Damascus Airport.
Initially there were 3 survivors, but one of them, a boy died on the way to the hospital. That brought the death toll to 126 with 2 survivors.
One of the Polish victims was Konrad Swinarski, theatre director and theatre manager.
The Hungarian victim was Tihamér Vujicsics (Serbian: Тихомир Вујичић / Tihomir Vujičić), composer and folk music collector of Serbian descent.