Originally Posted by
YVRLTN
Sad this thread has dies a bit of a death.... did Aviogenex ever serve LTN?
Yes indeed they did. From the heady days in the late 1960's onwards of popular package holidays to the former Yugoslavia saw both Aviogenex and Inex Adria (and JAT charter subsidiary Air Yugoslavia) fly oodles of summer flights for the main tour company Yugotours. (They did fly for others as the seat costs they offered were streets ahead of the likes of UK charter airlines)
Aviogenex flew from many UK airports in the main to - Pula, Krk Rijeka, Split, Tivat, Dubrovnik, Zadar, Ljubljana.
Sometimes 3 of their TU-134's would be seen on the deck at the same time - Def saw 2 at a time at LTN.
Prior to the breakup of Yugoslavia, Aviogenex was the busiest charter airline in the country, handling over half a million passengers per year in the late 1980s.
Aviogenex brought their first two Boeing 727-2L8 from the Yugoslav Air Force in 1983, and took delivery of 2 brand new 737-2K3 in 1987.
The Tu-134's were retired in 1990 leaving a newer fleet with 10 aircraft (5 Boeing 727-200 and 5 Boeing 737-200)
There was also Pan Adria Airways who had a sole new DC9 32 that also flew into the UK - they flew for a short time early 1970s -
No connection to Inex Adria.
Sadly on 23 May 1971 they suffered a bad crash to the brand new (111 hours) YU-AHZ Tupolev TU-134A operating Flight JJ130 at Rijeka (Krk Island)
Flying from Gatwick on a Yugotours Holidays flight with 76 pax and 7 crew the aircraft landed in a Thunderstorm.
There was a heavy downpour, accompanied by gusty winds/windshear on final approach.
The location of the new airport surrounded by mountains also caused additional difficulties for the crew. According to the Capt just before touchdown, the plane got caught into a powerful updraft, a critical situation immediately arose, and he stated it was not possible to take the right action to get out of it and he closed the throttles.
As a result, contact with the runway occurred with a very high vertical speed and the starboard main landing gear gave way, that wing broke and folded over, the plane then turned over "on its back" and scraped along the runway for 700m.
Fuel poured from damaged fuel tanks. An intense fire broke out, which the airport emergency fire services could not cope with.
75 passengers and 3 flight attendants were killed, the flight crew of 4 escaped from the cockpit side windows, and one passenger seated at the rear survived escaping from a hole in the rear cabin.
The investigation showed that most of the victims died of smoke inhalation, having survived the crash landing uninjured, but they remained trapped in the burning aircraft.
30% of the occupants were found still strapped upside down in their seats.
The 2 forward main Exits were both dislodged, distorted and became jammed, as did the cockpit door to the galley and cabin, thus the people could not get out, nor could rescuers gain access.
None of the four overwing exits were opened as this was the main area of fire initially, and those on the right side were blocked by the folded over stump of the right wing.
The British AAIB Inquiry who assisted the Yugoslav Investigation was damning in the lack of safety features on the Tupolev compared to their inspections of Inex Adria & JAT DC-9's also used by Yugotours.
Both Reports can be found online to read.