Low passenger counts and a fatal crash during a test flight in May 1978 prompted the airline to pulled the Tu-144 from service for good in June 1978. Combined with the economical situation and high oil prices the days of operational service were numbered. June 1 – The Tupolev Tu-144 supersonic transport makes its 55th and final passenger flight, an Aeroflot flight on the Soviet Union's domestic Moscow-Alma-Ata route. There were eight crew members on board. According to the investigating committee, a fuel line broke up 27 minutes before engine start. D model CCCP-77111 crash landed at Yegoryevsk, losing the whole plane in the following fire. Compared to the Concorde, Tupolev Tu-144 was slightly larger and faster Credit: AP:Associated Press Tragedy struck again on May 23, 1978, when another crash … As a result, 6 people on board and 8 people on the ground have passed away. As a result, a structural failure occurred on the left wing, which caused the aircraft to roll on its back, to brake in two parts and to explode in the air. The 144 was also the first to fly Supersonic. On Tuesday, 23rd May 1978 a second fatal accident happened with the Tu-144D number 06-2 registered CCCP-77111. It was later confirmed that the Tupolev TU-144 was designed to support a positive force of five to seven g but a negative force of one g only. Two engines were shut down by fire alarm but the failure of a third engine forced an emergency landing on a field near Yegoryevsk. Tu-144s have carried a total of 3,194 passengers, an average of 58 passengers per flight. During a test flight the rupture of a fuel line caused the leak of 8 tons of fuel inside the right wing. The crash delayed the Tu-144 development. Aeroflot officially terminated its ties with the Tu-144 after a modified model crashed on a test flight near Moscow in June 1978. A Tupolev Tu-144D plane, registered CCCP-77111, was damaged beyond repair in an accident near Kladkovo, Yegoryevsk District, Russia. This allowed eight tons of fuel to leak into several compartments of the right wing and a fire erupted when the auxiliary power unit was triggered. In May 1978, another Tu-144 (an improved version, named Tu-144D) crashed on a test flight while being delivered, and the passenger fleet was permanently grounded after only 55 scheduled flights. The aircraft in fact was introduced into passenger service on Nov. 1, 1977, almost two years after Concorde. The Tupolev Tu-144, or ‘Concordski’ as the aircraft was affectionately nicknamed by the West, was the first to perform its maiden flight. Another accident in 1978 marked the end of the passenger service. 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