On 20 August 1975, the flight, operated by an Ilyushin Il-62, crashed 17 km (11 mi) from Damascus International Airport while descending in clear weather, breaking up and catching fire on impact.

The flight proceeded normally for the next three and a half hours towards its scheduled stopover at Damascus International Airport.

Shortly after midnight on 20 August 1975, the crew established a connection with the regional control center and a moment later with the airport tower in Damascus itself.

At 00:10, the crew received a weather report, indicating clear conditions with a very light wind.

They tried to find the black boxes, however the plane was not equipped with a cockpit voice recorder, which greatly complicated the investigation.

Communication between crew and tower: OK 540: Good evening, we are approaching Damascus VOR 5000 feet.

Tower: OK 540, proceed to VOR approach, report runway final 23R, wind 230/12, QNH (altitude) 1010.

They also ruled out the possibility of an explosion in flight or being shot down, as the debris was scattered over a relatively small area.

Due to strict censorship in the Czechoslovakia, only little was written about the accident, and most of the material about it was top secret.

The investigative commission cooperated very sporadically with each other, especially the Syrian side, which refused to search the personal belongings of the victims, carried away the debris, and did not report whether they had found any important clues.

Syrian citizens carried pieces of aircraft as well, due to lack of controlling of area.

The theory of being shot down by a Syrian surface-to-air missile was possible thanks to the ongoing war in Lebanon, due to opening official branch of Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) in Prague few days earlier, so they might shot down this aircraft as a protest against this decision.

The theory of the shooting down was further deepened thanks to the subsequent visit of the Syrian president to Czechoslovakia, allegedly to settle relations.