This YouTube Video tells of crash where a plane load of Russians officers died because of their greed!
When the Soviet Navy Lost 16 Admirals in a Single Accident: The Tu-104 Crash at Pushkin
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZU1f47SC_A8&t=172s
The plane was loaded to the rafters with swag the generals wanted to take back with them. It was too heavy and crashed.
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Incredible video!
LOL! The Soviet Union labels incompetence and fear-based rushing, “greed” and forty years later, YouTube mindlessly parrots the label.
Sounds more like it was a matter of “Admiral Zoandzoski wants on that craft, and I don’t want to be stationed in Siberia for telling him, ‘no.’” From Wikipedia, which, yes, seems to reliably summarize its sources (but one of which is no longer available):
“The investigation of the accident revealed that the crew allowed the aircraft to be improperly loaded. Evidence was uncovered that led investigators to believe that some military officers did not comply with seating assignments given by the crew and that these officers pressured the crew to make the flight in an unsafely loaded aircraft. Another factor reported by witnesses was that large rolls of printing paper were loaded on board, and these are believed to have rolled rearward during acceleration on take-off, causing the center of gravity to shift aft of acceptable limits, thereby reducing the stability of the aircraft in pitch, making lowering the nose impossible for the crew.”
Alternatively, the KGB solved a lot of problems with one single action.