On 8 March 1988, after the Tupolev Tu-154 operating the flight had left Kurgan, it was hijacked by the Ovechkin family, whose members sought to defect from the Soviet Union.

[1] During the incident, a flight attendant (Tamara Zharkaya) was shot dead on the orders of the Ovechkin matriarch and three hostages were killed during the storming of the aircraft.

[4] At the time of the incident the family consisted of twelve members: mother Nina (Ninel) and her eleven children (seven sons and four daughters).

[1] After giving birth to the tenth of her eleven children, Ninel was awarded the Soviet distinction of "Mother Heroine".

Following the band's tour of Japan, the Ovechkin family decided to leave the Soviet Union and settle abroad, which was usually not allowed by the government.

They left a note claiming they were going to meet relatives[1] and boarded a Aeroflot airliner flying from Irkutsk to Leningrad (now Saint Petersburg).

During the boarding on Flight 3739, airport personnel offered to place the double bass in the luggage section; the Ovechkins refused and paid extra for it to be transported in the cabin.

The captain transmitted a distress signal and reported the emergency to Vologda air traffic control.

[1][7] The flight engineer had earlier persuaded the hijackers that the aircraft needed to refuel in order to reach London.

[7][1] In addition to Zharkaya, fatalities among the hostages included three passengers (two women, aged 69 and 70, and a 24 year old man) who were accidentally killed during the storming of the aircraft.