Due to bad weather, Nizhneangarsk Airport closed, and the crew rerouted the aircraft to land at an airfield in nearby Ust-Barguzin.

Mountains surrounding Lake Baikal were at that time obscured by the cloud cover, and visibility was only about 5 kilometres (3.1 mi) with rain and winds of up to 5 metres per second (11 mph).

[2] At 10:30 MSK, almost an hour after takeoff, the crew reported a nearby flight, and at 10:41 began communications with the air tower at Ulan-Barguzin in preparation for landing.

At 11:16, the aircraft descended from a height of 3,600 metres (11,800 ft) to 2,700 metres (8,900 ft).Shortly before the crash, the flight crew intentionally misinformed[1] the flight deck that the airfield was in sight,[3] and the air tower gave them visual instructions on landing; the crew accepted these instructions at 11:21, without actually being in sight of the air field.

At 11:22 MSK, the aircraft crashed 1,300 metres (4,300 ft) above sea level on the side of a mountain located on the Holy Nose Peninsula in Lake Baikal, about 30 kilometres (19 mi) from the Ust-Barguzin airfield.