The Tupolev Tu-154 (Russian: Ту-154) is a three-engine medium-range narrow-body airliner designed in the mid-1960s and manufactured by Tupolev OKB. A workhorse of Soviet airlines for several decades, it carried half of all passengers flown by Aeroflot and its subsidiaries (137.5 million/year or 243.8 billion passenger km in 1990), remaining the standard domestic-route airliner of the Soviet Union until the mid-2000s. It was exported to seventeen non-Soviet airlines and used as head-of-state transport by the air forces of several countries.
With a cruising speed of 606 mph (975.26 km/h), the Tu-154 is one of the fastest civilian aircraft in use and has a range of 3,280 miles (5,278.6 kilometers). Capable of operating from unpaved and gravel airfields with only basic facilities, it was widely used in the extreme Arctic conditions of Russia's northern/eastern regions where other airliners were unable to operate. Originally designed for a 45,000 hour service life (18,000 cycles) but capable of 80,000 hours with upgrades, it is expected to continue in service until 2016, although noise regulations have restricted flights to western Europe and other regions.
During the 1990s and 2000s, the Tu-154 was slowly replaced by the more modern Tu-204. In January 2010, Soviet flag carrier Aeroflot announced the retirement of its Tu-154 fleet after 40 years, with the last scheduled flight being Aeroflot Flight 736 from Ekaterinburg to Moscow on December 31st, 2009. The last scheduled public passenger flight took place in May 2015 when Belavia as the last airline worldwide using the Tu-154 retired their remaining Tu-154s from scheduled services. Since then, the type is only used for military and charter operations.
Since 1968 there have been 39 fatal incidents involving the Tu-154, most of which were caused either by factors unrelated to the aircraft, or by its extensive use in demanding conditions.