The aircraft was then diverted to Moscow's Vnukovo Airport, where the hijackers demanded a buyout and provision of a flight to Sweden.

It was registered as CCCP-87607 and sent to the Civil Aviation Administration of the Central Districts, tentatively to the Bryansk Aeroflot division.

Ten minutes prior to landing at Bryansk Airport, four male hijackers (Viktor Romanov, Vladimir Zhalnin, Pyotr Bondarev, and Aleksandr Nikiforov) retrieved guns out of the overhead luggage bins and took passengers as hostages, then attempted to storm the cockpit.

[5] One of the passengers (Vladimir Gaponenko) attempted to defuse Bondarev, but he lost his balance from the aircraft pitching, and as a result got injured.

Meanwhile, the attackers managed to break the lock on the cockpit door and entered the flight deck.

KGB Chairman (and future leader of the USSR) Yuri Andropov and the Minister of Internal Affairs Nikolai Shchelokov soon arrived at the airport and began developing a strategy to free the hostages.

At the same time, an armoured personnel carrier approached the aircraft and fired a line from the machine gun aiming at the plane, which suffered around 90 bullet hits.

Hijackers Bondarev and Zhalnin escaped the plane together with the passengers, whilst Romanov shot himself.

On 19 December 1973 at a ceremony in Moscow, police officer Aleksandr Popryadukhin and captain Ivan Kashin were awarded the title Hero of the Soviet Union for courage.

[1] After the hijacking of Flight 19, screening of passengers in airports in the Soviet Union was significantly improved and tightened.