Within moments, the three pilots on board also realized the danger, but by then, the aircraft had already tilted nearly 90 degrees—an extreme angle that the Airbus A310 was never designed to withstand.
The plane rapidly lost altitude, stalling before automatically entering a dive in an attempt to stabilize.
Although the pilots managed to regain some control and pull the aircraft out of the dive, they miscalculated the force required, which led to another stall.
“Go to the back! Go to the back, Eldar!” Yaroslav can be heard shouting in urgency as the pilots struggle to regain command. “You see the danger, don’t you?”
With all three pilots making frantic efforts to correct their mistakes and bring the aircraft back under control, Yaroslav reassures his children, “Get out now! All is normal.”
Then—suddenly—the recording cuts off.

The pilots managed to regain control of the spiraling aircraft, but by then, it had lost too much altitude and ultimately crashed into the Kuznetsk Alatau mountain range, resulting in the tragic loss of everyone on board.
Following the crash, investigators found no signs of mechanical failure and concluded that the disaster was likely caused by the decision to let children handle the controls during the flight.
Perhaps the most heartbreaking revelation was that if the three pilots had allowed the autopilot to correct the situation instead of intervening manually, the aircraft would have stabilized on its own, and all passengers would have survived.
At the time, an Aeroflot spokesperson stated that the airline had since implemented stricter cockpit regulations in response to the incident.