After being delayed due to bad weather, the aircraft attempted to touch down around 22:00 but crashed approximately 1,400 meters (4,500 feet) short of the runway after striking trees.

[1] The airplane was in the process of flying the Baku-Makhachkala-Astrakhan-Stalingrad-Moscow route, but had been dealing with poor weather conditions that had hampered the crew on their journey.

At 14:20, the airplane took off for Vnukovo, but found it was closed due to weather conditions and the flight returned to Stalingrad at 17:15, 1 hour 55 minutes after takeoff.

The accident was attributed to pilot error that resulted in a premature loss of altitude, which led to the craft colliding with obstacles.

In addition, the controller responsible for the flight was a trainee who was not officially allowed to work with the precision approach radar independently and did not convey the range or the proper altitude to the crew, which would have enabled them to potentially avert the crash.