BAL Bashkirian Airlines - Tupolev Tu-154M

RA-85816
BTC 2937 † 1 July 2002

A common misconception seems to be that RA-85816 was painted in the top livery at the time of its fatal collision with DHL 611 - even the documentaries on the crash have it painted up as such (looking at you, Seconds from Disaster, with your god-awful 757 3D model). However the blue and green livery in question was used only prior to 1998, before the aircraft was leased from BAL to Transeuropean Airlines and Shaheen Air - when it returned to BAL's fleet in 2002, it retained the same basic Shaheen Air paintscheme with BAL titles and logos.