[1] The plane took off from Beijing around 2:49am Moscow time en route to Irkutsk at 9,000 meters.

Upon exiting the cloud cover less than 60 meters from the ground, the pilots attempted to take evasive action but could not and the plane impacted terrain two miles short of the runway around 10am local time.

[1] 33 of the 35 people on board died in the crash, including all eight crew members and 25 passengers.

[2] The remains of the Albanian and Chinese victims were taken to Beijing for a major public burial attended by Premier Zhou Enlai.

In contrast, a United States aviation periodical noted the Soviet press "virtually ignored" the crash.