The runway lights flickered on - did the sleeping controller wake in time?

A Tu-154 closes on Omsk runway as two fuel trucks sit dark below and a 23-year-old ground controller sleeps - did they wake in time?

The runway lights flickered on - did the sleeping controller wake in time?

In this episode, we follow the unfolding minutes before a Tupolev Tu-154 attempted to land at Omsk in October 1984. You’ll hear who was on the aircraft, who was on the runway, how procedures and small decisions stacked up - and the question that remained as the plane descended.

Person: Captain Boris Petrovich Stepanov Date: October 11, 1984 Location: Omsk Airport Aircraft: Tupolev Tu-154 B-1, manufactured 1977 Person: Ground controller Andrey Borodaenko

- The Tu-154 carried 178 people, was fully loaded, and its crew had no mechanical issues or reason to divert. - Three maintenance vehicles with up to seven tons of jet fuel each entered the runway at 05:20 under an authorization logged only by Borodaenko. - Regulations required warning beacons on runway vehicles; the workers switched those lights off because the rotating beacons blinded them in the wet dark. - At 05:36 runway edge lights activated automatically as the inbound flight approached; maintenance workers attempted to contact ground control multiple times with no answer. - Borodaenko, the 23-year-old ground controller who had authorized the convoy, closed his eyes and fell asleep in the tower while instruments continued to show the runway clear.

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