At the time of the crash, the aircraft had accumulated a total of 580 flight hours and 573 landings.

It was piloted by a crew from the 120th flight squadron, which included the commander Vladimir Tikhonovich Kozlovskikh, the co-pilot Leonid Petrovich Tugarin, the navigator-radio operator Aleksandr Mitrofanovich Khoroshaev, and the flight engineer Mikhail Semenovich Syomin.

The cabin crew consisted of the flight attendant Yuriy Ivanovich Morozov.

Weather conditions were simple, with continuous stratocumulus clouds at 400 meters and visibility of 10 kilometers.

The crew then proceeded with a visual approach for landing, with a right turn on a magnetic heading of 38°.