The Federal Security Service of Russia for Transbaikal Krai has declassified investigation documents regarding the deadliest act of terrorism in Soviet history, the attempted hijacking and bombing of a Tu-104A airliner over Siberia in 1973. Flight SU-109 from Moscow to Chita crashed after a bomb exploded on board, killing all 72 passengers and crew members.
The declassified files show that the attacker was Chingiz Yunus-ogly Rzayev, a 32-year-old native of Kirovabad in the Azerbaijan Soviet Socialist Republic. Rzayev attempted to hijack the plane to China in hopes of defecting and becoming a diplomat, but his homemade bomb detonated when an armed guard shot him outside the cockpit.
Chita is a city in eastern Siberia, located near the Soviet border with China. The Tu-104A was a twin-engine jet airliner introduced in the 1950s by the Soviet Union. The investigation was led by the Committee for State Security, known as the KGB, which was the primary security and intelligence agency of the USSR.
On the morning of May 21, 1973, two days after the crash near Chita, an operational headquarters of the KGB, prosecutor's office investigators, and forensic medical examiners worked to identify the final passenger. The individual had registered on the passenger manifest in Irkutsk as passenger number 54 under the name Razavayev.
Investigators questioned all 38 residents of Irkutsk bearing the surname Razavayev, but found that none had lost a passport. They expanded the search to 54 other individuals named Razavayev across neighboring regions and checked over 100 people named Radavayev or Razanayev across three Siberian regions, finding everyone accounted for.
Forensic medical experts reconstructed the head of passenger number 54 on May 19, identifying distinctive physical features. These included gold and silver dental crowns and a large gap between his upper front teeth, which authorities circulated nationwide.
False Trace in Bashkiria
A response from the Main Information Center of the USSR Ministry of Internal Affairs suggested the description matched Fashil Tavabilov, a man born in 1939 from the village of Balyklykul in the Bashkir ASSR. Tavabilov was on an all-Union wanted list for the murder of his wife and five-year-old daughter.
Investigators presented Tavabilov's photograph alongside others to passengers who disembarked in Novosibirsk and Irkutsk, as well as to the rotated flight crew. One female passenger positively identified Tavabilov as the person occupying seat 11B on Flight SU-109, although no other witnesses confirmed the match.
According to the search circular issued by the Ministry of Internal Affairs, police discovered the bodies of Khadicha Tavabilova and her five-year-old daughter Nuriya on the night of July 26, 1972, inside a three-room apartment on Druzhby Street in Sterlitamak. Evidence indicated that Tavabilov, a Tatar man with a prior criminal record, killed them using electric shock.
The circular stated that the couple married on August 21, 1962, initially living in a barrack before receiving the apartment. Neighbors and relatives reported that Tavabilov drank heavily, engaged in extramarital affairs, physically abused his wife, and repeatedly demanded that they move to a rural area for farming, which his wife refused.
In September 1967, Tavabilov left his family for Nefteyugansk, returning in May 1968 to work as an electrician. On May 22, 1972, he quit and moved to the Chishma station power supply section of the Kuibyshev Railway, residing in a service apartment in Cheremshan. On July 20, 1972, his wife brought a divorce application to Cheremshan, but Tavabilov seized the document, wrote on it that he refused the divorce and would kill her, and later traveled by motor scooter to Sterlitamak.
On July 25, 1972, Tavabilov connected an electric wire to the mains and dropped the exposed end into the bathtub while his wife bathed, electrocuting her before electrocuting their daughter and placing her body in the bath. A note left with an acquaintance named G contained Tavabilov's confession, detailed his method, and requested that all three family members be buried in a single grave.
On May 20, 1973, a prosecutor's investigator and a KGB operational officer flew to Moscow to examine the remains of passenger number 54. They were unable to make a definitive identification, ruling out the theory involving Tavabilov.
Breakthrough in the Investigation
The breakthrough occurred at the crash site near Chita when search teams recovered a military identity card issued on December 18, 1963, by the Leninsky district military commissariat in Tbilisi to Chingiz Rzayev, born in Kirovabad, Azerbaijan SSR. Records indicated that Rzayev had reported the document lost in 1969.
The head of the KGB in the Georgian SSR, Colonel General Alexei Inauri, ordered a complete investigation. An operational officer searched Rzayev's registered apartment on Gvazavurskaya Street in Tbilisi, discovering his replacement passport, replacement military card, and a box containing 21 flat flashlight batteries wired together with a modified switch.
Inside the box, investigators also found three flashlight bulbs with their glass covers removed, all of which were burnt out. Explosives experts concluded that the box contained a custom-built bomb initiator designed to trigger upon releasing the switch rather than pressing it, bearing signs of extensive testing and using electrical wire matching fragments found at the crash site.
Rzayev's mother and sister subsequently identified the body of passenger number 54 as Chingiz Yunus-ogly Rzayev, born in January 1941.
Military Training and Failed Ambitions
Between May 21 and May 25, 1973, KGB officers constructed a detailed profile of Rzayev's 32 years of life. His mother, Maria Yakovlevna, suffered from mental health issues and underwent long-term psychiatric treatment before marrying his father, Yunus, in Kirovabad in 1929. The family had a daughter in 1930 and a son, Chingiz, in 1941.
During World War II, Yunus was drafted into the army while Maria evacuated with the children, eventually reuniting in Tbilisi before the parents divorced in 1945. Neighbors interviewed in 1973 testified that Maria abused alcohol and cohabited with various men, forcing Chingiz to sleep in the attic, while neighbors provided old clothes and food. Classmates in the fifth grade chipped in to buy him shoes because he wore summer sandals during winter.
Rzayev completed seven grades of school before working and being drafted into the Soviet army. He served as a senior motor mechanic for armament repair in military unit 05381, known as the 5th Assault Engineering-Sapper Vitebsk-Khingan Brigade, an elite unit stationed in Transbaikal.
Rzayev underwent six months of driver-mechanic training for special engineering vehicles in Tartu, Estonian SSR, followed by six months of mine and explosives training. He was then stationed at Bolshaya Tura in the Transbaikal Military District as a motor mechanic and later transferred to Chita as an artillery tractor mechanic before his demobilization on November 15, 1963.
In testimony given during the investigation, Warrant Officer Kondratyev described Rzayev as the only person of Caucasian ethnicity in the brigade during that period. Kondratyev stated that Rzayev received negative evaluations, simulated illnesses, refused orders, and expressed a reluctance to serve, though he remained neat, active in cultural activities, and frequently went absent without leave to visit a local woman.
While in the army, Rzayev studied secondary school courses, enabling him to pass eighth and tenth grade examinations externally after demobilization and receive a full high school diploma. He sought admission to the Moscow Institute of International Relations, known as MGIMO, which trained Soviet diplomats.
After his demobilization in November 1963, Rzayev moved to Baku and worked as a timber cutter at a meat processing plant where his sister worked as a bacteriologist. He became secretary of the local Komsomol youth organization, studied German with private tutors, and applied to MGIMO in the summer of 1965, but fell one point short of admission.
Rzayev returned to Baku to prepare for a second attempt, studying literature and earning a Komsomol trip to East Germany. However, in 1966, his father was convicted of speculation in the city of Mary and sentenced to two years in a labor colony, creating a criminal record in the family that led the Komsomol Central Committee to deny Rzayev the required recommendation letter.
Extremist Contacts and Hijack Plot
Denied further university options, Rzayev quit his job, moved to his mother's home in Tbilisi, and reported his passport and military card lost to obtain duplicate documents. He traveled to Estonia and established contact with Leonid Kravtsov, an activist monitored by the Estonian KGB for involvement in the international Zionist movement.
According to investigative records, Kravtsov planned to blow up an electrical substation at the Dvigatel plant and consulted Rzayev for expertise in explosives. Unit commander Lieutenant Colonel Dubchenko later testified that all soldiers in Rzayev's former brigade received extensive practical and theoretical training in mining and demolitions.
KGB officers arrested Kravtsov on October 22, 1971, seizing correspondence with Rzayev that detailed explosion preparations. Kravtsov was convicted of spreading anti-Soviet fabrications and committed to a psychiatric hospital in Chernyakhovsk on January 26, 1972. Meanwhile, in 1967, Rzayev began dating Lyudmila Nosova, a flight attendant with the Tbilisi aviation unit, gaining access to restricted airport areas and learning about border aviation security protocols until she ended the relationship in 1970 over his infidelity.
Equipped with explosives knowledge, airport security insights, duplicate documents, and anti-Soviet contacts, Rzayev targeted China for his escape. He believed Beijing would not extradite him due to Sino-Soviet tensions and told acquaintances that an Azerbaijani would have the best opportunity to become a diplomat in China.
The Fatal Bombing of Flight SU-109
In early May 1973, Rzayev assembled and tested an explosive device in Tbilisi, telling relatives he had taken a job requiring travel. He traveled by train to Moscow on May 14 and boarded Flight 123 to Irkutsk on May 16 after failing to secure a direct ticket to Chita, carrying a ten-kilogram suitcase and a five-kilogram brown leather briefcase containing the bomb.
Arriving in Irkutsk late on May 17, Rzayev bought a ticket to Chita, registered under the alias Razavayev on the ticket stub, and checked into an airport hotel at 2:00 AM on May 18. Maid service later noted an unconsumed bottle of Azerbaijani wine and untouched bedding, indicating he stayed awake until checking out at 6:00 AM to board Flight SU-109.
Seated in the second cabin away from the windows, Rzayev waited until the airliner began its descent toward Chita to initiate the hijack. When flight engineer Georgy Kuzenkov stepped into the cabin to inspect systems, Rzayev produced the bomb, demanded an immediate end to the descent, and ordered Kuzenkov to lead him into the cockpit.
Kuzenkov signaled the threat to Police Lieutenant Yezhikov, an armed officer assigned to escort the flight. As Rzayev approached the cockpit carrying the briefcase, Yezhikov fired at him in accordance with instructions. The gunshot wounded Rzayev, causing his hand to release the pressure switch on the bomb initiator and immediately detonating the explosive device.
Reforms to Soviet Aviation Security
The criminal investigation concluded on July 1, 1973, and was formally closed due to the death of the perpetrator. On July 6, KGB Chairman Yuri Andropov presented the investigation findings to the USSR Council of Ministers.
On July 12, 1973, the Council of Ministers issued secret decree number 1414-RS, creating the Regime Directorate within the Ministry of Civil Aviation. The head of the directorate was appointed as Deputy Minister for Security and held a seat on the ministry's executive board, with KGB Lieutenant General Nikolai Ratnikov leading the division until 1981.
The decree established mandatory total screening of all passengers and luggage across Soviet airports. Authorities disarmed escorting police officers, installed armored locks on cockpit doors that remained secured throughout flights, trained flight crews in emergency response, and restricted ticket entries exclusively to official ticketing staff.
Following the implementation of these measures, Soviet authorities thwarted four hijack attempts on the ground and stopped 17 airborne hijack attempts between 1973 and 1980. The International Civil Aviation Organization subsequently recognized the Soviet Union as a leading nation in combating aerial piracy.
