The aircrew consisted of 51-year-old captain Heinz Pfaff, 35-year-old first officer Lothar Walther, 32-year-old flight engineer Ingolf Stein, and 38-year-old navigator Achim Flilenius.

Because of the summer holiday, the number of passengers – mainly tourists bound for the Bulgarian Black Sea Coast – almost reached the full capacity of the airliner.

At 16:43, thirteen minutes into the flight and 8,900 metres (29,200 ft) above the city of Cottbus, East Germany, the crew reported problems with the elevator; the aircraft was by this time approximately 10 degrees off its designated route.

Due to the forces of the dive, the rest of the aircraft broke up in mid-air, the debris landing in the town of Königs Wusterhausen, East Germany.

The fire was caused by a hot-air tube leak, through which air heated to some 300 °C (570 °F) escaped, damaging the insulation of electrical wires and the aircraft flight control system.