On 4 July 2001, the aircraft operating the flight, a Tupolev Tu-154M with tail number RA-85845, lost control, stalled, and crashed while approaching Irkutsk Airport.

A navigator and flight engineer were also present in the cockpit, identified as Nikolai Nikolaevich Sakrytin and Yuri Alexandrovich Stepanov, respectively.

[1] On 3 July 2001, the aircraft was cleared to fly to Irkutsk, piloted by Captain Valentin Stepanovich Goncharuk and First Officer Sergei Alexandrovich Didenko.

[1][12] Several minutes later, the aircraft reached point Razdolye and contacted the controller in Irkutsk about the current position of Flight 352.

[12] As the aircraft reached the altitude of 2,100 metres (6,900 ft), at 02:05 local time, Captain Goncharuk reported that he had established visual contact with the runway.

The aircraft eventually levelled off at 900 metres (3,000 ft) and the airspeed decreased to 420 kilometres per hour (230 kn; 260 mph), still a little faster than the allowed speed.

[1][12] Due to the large bank angle, Captain Goncharuk took over the control from First Officer Didenko and tried to correct the situation.

[1][12] The crew then sensed an increase of the aircraft's vertical rate of descent and therefore put an excessive nose up input into the yoke.

[1][12] On 4 July, at 02:08 local time, the aircraft crashed with its belly first near the settlement of Burdakovka, approximately 22 kilometres (14 mi; 12 nmi) from Irkutsk.

[19] By the evening of 4 July, ITAR-TASS reported that all of the victims - 136 passengers and 9 crew members - had been recovered from the crash site.

They were later ushered into the waiting room of the airport's terminal by employees of Vladivostok Air, where a team of psychologists and medics had been put on standby.

[20] Then-Russian Minister of Emergency Situations Sergei Shoigu flew to the crash site to monitor the recovery efforts.

[23] He stated that the ministry would send an Ilyushin Il-76 with an additional rescuers team and equipment to the site of the crash.

[24] Head of the East-Siberian Interregional Territorial Air Transport Administration, Yury Zhuravlev, announced that the controllers who were on duty during the crash of Flight 352 had been suspended from work.

[3][5] The government of Primorsky Krai and Sverdlovsk Oblast[25] initially announced a regionwide day of mourning on 5 July.

[23] Russian President Vladimir Putin later issued a decree declaring 5 July as a national day of mourning.

In Sverdlovsk Oblast, the local archbishop announced that memorial services will be held under the Yekaterinburg diocese.

At one point, an Antonov An-2 flew over the mourners at an extremely low altitude as a sign of farewell to the victims.

According to report, the bodies of 7 crew, including Captain Goncharuk and First Officer Didenko, will be buried in a mass grave.

Governing Artyom mayor Vladimir Novikov stated that "There has never been a more terrible tragedy in the history of our city."

Mayor of Vladivostok Yury Kopylov stated that a memorial for the victims of the crash will be constructed at the city's cemetery.

[32] Vladivostok Air agreed to build a memorial complex at Shevelevsky cemetery in Artyom, with a cost of about 1.5 million rubles.

[33] An obelisk was also erected at the crash site in Irkutsk, while in Vladivostok a memorial was built in the city's maritime cemetery.

[34] Vladivostok Air stated that they would pay ₽30,000 rubles for the burial of the victims and total amount of compensations would be deliberated further.

[39] Officials from the Tupolev Design Bureau emphasized that the automatic control system could not cause the aircraft to exceed the critical angle of attack and g-forces.

[42] On 10 July, during a press conference, Ilya Klebanov stated that the crash was caused by "human factor".

[44] Vladivostok Air disputed Klebanov's statement, claiming that the crash could not have been caused by the crew as they were regarded as experienced pilots.

[45] On 21 August, two executives from Vladivostok Air who were responsible on the crew training and flight safety left their posts following an inspection by the investigation commission.

The commission stated that all of these factors had contributed to the psychological and physical condition of the crew, which led to fatigue during flight.

[12] The commission noted that there were "serious shortcomings" on the oversight from Far East Region Department of the Ministry of Transport as multiple gross violations were found within the operational activities of Vladivostok Air.