On 30 June 1962, with 76 passengers (including 14 children) and 8 crew members aboard, the flight departed Irkutsk on schedule, and made a timely report 50 kilometers from Krasnoyarsk.

A few minutes later, an agitated voice later identified as that of the co-pilot made an incoherent emergency transmission with a background of an unusual noise.

[citation needed] The aircraft's wreckage was found 28 km east of Krasnoyarsk Airport, in flat terrain with small areas of forest.

At the time of the crash, a unit at nearby Magansk had fired anti-aircraft missiles as part of an exercise.

The responsible missile had allegedly lost its intended target in a storm front before hitting the Tu-104.