Aircraft accidents, incidents and air crashes in the USSR and Russia. Crash of the Yak-42 aircraft with the Lokomotiv Holding Company in the Yaroslavl region Crash of the Yak-42
According to our reliable source, the commission has already established that the plane began to accelerate along the runway with the parking brake not turned off. This device - analogous to a handbrake in a car - is used only when parked. The engine power is quite enough for the aircraft to move off while on the parking brake (just as some forgetful motorists start with the handbrake) and drive along the taxiway to the runway. But accelerating to takeoff speed is already becoming problematic.
MK Help Meanwhile
Errors when pilots do not turn off the parking brake, although rare, still happen. Thus, in 2005, a Boeing of the American company Kalitta Air was unable to take off at Khabarovsk Airport because the crew did not remove the landing gear from the parking brake. As a result, the wheels collapsed and their fragments got into the engines. Fortunately, there were no serious consequences then.
In addition, the source told MK that, as follows from the transcript of the Yak-42 voice recorder, immediately before takeoff, the aircraft commander Andrei Solomentsev ordered the co-pilot Igor Zhevelov to take control, citing poor health.
It was the commander who had to turn off the parking brake. But, perhaps, at the moment of transfer of control, the pilots simply forgot about it and did not pay attention to the corresponding signal on the instrument panel (it is not duplicated by the sound signal).
It is possible that when the Yak-42 began to accelerate for takeoff and could not reach the required speed, the pilots noticed an error and turned off the brake. By the way, theoretically, flight engineer Alexander Sizov, who survived the plane crash, could have noticed that the parking brake was not turned off, although during takeoff he is no less loaded with work than the commander.
Cabin of the Yak-42. Parking brake handle. Photo: Anton Bannikov.
Why the crew decided to continue the takeoff rather than apply emergency braking can only be speculated. Perhaps the pilots hoped that the length of the runway would be enough for them - the plane took off from half the runway, which is 1.5 km, while the Yak-42 needs 800 meters for takeoff. But it turned out to be too late. As a result, the plane took off from the ground (it drove the rear landing gear about 400 meters along the grass). This in itself would not have caused the tragedy, but the plane did not have time to gain a safe altitude and got caught on the lighthouse mast, which led to the destruction of the airliner.
According to MK, an official conclusion on the causes of the disaster could be prepared as early as Wednesday. Chairman of the Interstate Aviation Committee Tatyana Anodina reported to Prime Minister Vladimir Putin that the plane was fully operational and even “one-time commands indicating aircraft failures have not yet been identified on the parametric recorder recording.” In addition, according to her, before takeoff, the crew checked all the plane’s control channels and made sure they were working properly, the plane was not overloaded, and the weather conditions were normal.
Nevertheless, our source suggested that in the official conclusions that will be announced, “the commission, for purely ethical reasons, will try not to place all the blame on the crew, but to find what could have broken down there.” Because the pilots themselves became victims of the disaster.
A year ago, on September 7, 2011, a Yak-42D passenger aircraft with tail number RA-42434 of JSC Aviation Company Yak Service, performing an irregular international flight to transport passengers on the route Yaroslavl (Tunosha) - Minsk, from Tunosha airport in Yaroslavskaya areas.
There were 45 people on board the plane: the team of the Yaroslavl hockey club "Lokomotiv" - 37 passengers - and eight crew members. The players of the main team of the hockey team were heading to Minsk, where the next day a game was scheduled with the Dynamo hockey club - Lokomotiv's first match of the Continental Hockey League (KHL) season.
Yaroslav Neelov
Hockey club "Lokomotiv" (Yaroslavl)
In normal weather conditions, the plane began its takeoff run on the runway at Tunoshna airport.
The plane gained an altitude of no more than five to six meters, then collided with the localizer antenna system (LOB), located 435 meters from the end of the runway and having a height of about three meters, with the LOC container, then with an intense left roll collided with the base of the approach lights ( airfield lighting system) and trees, hit the ground approximately 600 meters from the end of the runway, on the bank of the Tunoshonka River, and collapsed. The bulk of the plane's fragments were scattered at a distance of 800-900 meters from the end of the runway.
43 people died immediately (39 people - from instant mechanical injuries to the body, three people - due to drowning, one person died due to thermal injuries to the body).
Only two survived - hockey player Alexander Galimov and flight engineer Alexander Sizov. Both ended up in the river after the plane crashed. Galimov was conscious, was able to walk away from the burning plane himself and gave his name to the police.
The survivors were hospitalized.
The athlete, who received burns to 90% of his body, was taken to the burn department of the Vishnevsky Institute of Surgery in Moscow, where he died on September 12.
Sizov the day after the disaster at the Sklifosovsky Research Institute of Emergency Medicine in Moscow with multiple fractures of the ribs, a comminuted fracture of the femur, a penetrating head wound with brain damage and burns to 15% of the body. The patient's condition was extremely serious.
The forward of the Lokomotiv team, 20-year-old Maxim Zyuzyakin, and the Finnish goalkeeper coach Jorma Valtonen, who worked at the Yaroslavl club, survived for the match in Minsk.
On September 7, the Interstate Aviation Committee (IAC) formed a commission to investigate the causes and circumstances of the disaster.
A criminal case was initiated into the disaster under Part 3 of Article 263 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation. An investigation into a technical malfunction of the aircraft and a pilot error.
Due to the death of the main team, the Lokomotiv team joined the Continental Hockey League (KHL) in the 2011-2012 season.
September 10 at the Yaroslavl Ice Sports Palace. 14 people were buried directly in Yaroslavl, the bodies of the remaining victims were transported to other cities and countries. Among the dead were citizens of Ukraine, Belarus, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Germany, Sweden and Latvia.
RIA News. Vladimir Terentyev
"Lokomotiv" as we will remember it
By September 15, Rostransnadzor had inspected all 15 airlines operating Yak-42 aircraft. As a result of the inspection, three aircraft were suspended from flights, and a total of 28 Yak-42 aircraft were inspected.
On September 22, Alexander Sizov, a ground engineer for aviation and radio-electronic equipment who survived the crash, was interrogated by Georgy Yachmenev, Deputy Chairman of the MAK for Aircraft Accident Investigation, Honored Pilot of the USSR. According to Alexander Sizov, there were no comments on the operation of the aircraft either during preparation for the flight or during takeoff. Sizov noted that he did not see who was flying the plane during takeoff. Sizov did not remember the moment of the disaster itself; he only remembered how the airliner took off, and the next moment he woke up in the water, where spilled kerosene was burning.
According to Sizov’s testimony, the IAC clarified the actual placement of passengers and luggage: the team’s management and coaches were in the front cabin, the team was in the second cabin, and the bulk of the luggage was loaded into the rear trunk. This means that the plane was unable to take off normally due to a misalignment, since the bulk of the passengers were allegedly in the front cabin.
At the beginning of October 2011, flight engineer Alexander Sizov successfully underwent plastic surgery on his face and neck.
RIA News. Yaroslav Neelov
Memorial complex to members of the Lokomotiv hockey club who died in a plane crash on September 7, 2011, at the Leontyevskoye cemetery in Yaroslavl.
The material was prepared based on information from RIA Novosti and open sources
On September 7, 2011, a Yak-42 aircraft of Yak Service airlines crashed during takeoff near Tunoshna airport in the Yaroslavl region. There were 45 people on board the plane, including members of the Yaroslavl hockey team Lokomotiv. According to the Ministry of Emergency Situations at 19.30 Moscow time, two people survived.
Cases of Yak-42 aircraft crashes were relatively rare.
May 26, 2003 The Yak-42, which belonged to the Ukrainian Mediterranean Lines company, crashed. The disaster killed 62 Spanish peacekeepers returning from Afghanistan. The tragedy occurred while landing for refueling at the Turkish Trabzon airport.
According to the materials of the commission to investigate the circumstances of the tragedy, the cause of the disaster was the “human factor.” The final document of the investigation notes that at the time of the crash the crew had been in flight for 23 hours without rest, which is five hours more than allowed by Spanish regulations. The pilot was overtired and did not follow the air traffic controller's command to turn towards the sea, but turned towards the mountains, where he crashed.
December 25, 1999 The Yak-42 of the Cuban company Cubana de Aviation crashed approximately 200 kilometers west of Caracas (Venezuela).
The airliner crashed into a nearby mountain during a landing maneuver over the airport in Valencia. Following this, there was a strong explosion and a fire broke out. All 22 people on board were killed. Among the ten passengers, four were Cubans, four were Venezuelans and two were Dutch. According to experts, the tragedy occurred due to a mistake by crew members who did not know well the specifics of the destination airport - Valencia.
December 17, 1997 The Yak-42 plane of the Ukrainian company Aerosvit crashed into the Pieria mountain range in northern Greece while trying to land at Thessaloniki International Airport (Greece). 74 people were killed, including eight crew members. In 2005, a court in Greece found two air traffic controllers guilty of criminal negligence causing a plane crash.
November 21, 1993 A Yak-42 plane, leased by the private Macedonian airline Aviaimpex, crashed in Macedonia. In bad weather conditions and in the dark, the plane crashed into a mountain two kilometers from the Ohrid airfield. The crew died, of 108 passengers only one survived. The disaster occurred during landing due to an error in determining the altitude.
(based on materials from RIA Novosti).
Summer 1992 The Yak-42 crashed in the Chinese city of Nanjing. There were more than 100 passengers on board the plane. The aircraft was purchased by China from the former Soviet Union in 1986 for $15 million through government-to-government trade. Before the start of operation in China, it had two major overhauls. Chinese technicians independently serviced the airliner, without the help of Russian specialists.
(based on materials from the Segodnya newspaper, 06/06/1994, Chinese Tu 154 crashed near Xi'an).
September 13, 1990 During landing, a Yak 42 crashed, flying from Volgograd to Sverdlovsk (now Yekaterinburg). The accident occurred near Koltsovo airport. Of the 128 people on board, four died.
(According to materials from the Russian newspaper, 02/06/1991, No. 24, Victims of emergency situations are always specific. Will we learn to find specific culprits?).
Boeing 747-200 crash
269 dead
baaa-acro.com
On September 1, 1983, a Soviet Su-15 fighter shot down a passenger Boeing 747 of the South Korean airline Korean Air Lines, which deviated 500 km from the main route and crossed the border with the USSR. The crash killed 246 passengers and 23 crew members; no one survived. US Representative Larry McDonald was on board.
This incident caused a serious confrontation between the USA and the USSR. According to an investigation by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), the most likely cause of the flight path deviation was that KAL007's pilots had incorrectly configured the autopilot and then failed to perform proper checks to verify the current position.
Tu-154 crash near Uchkuduk
200 dead
wikimedia.org
On July 10, 1985, regular flight No. 7425 Karshi—Ufa—Leningrad, having gained a height of 11,600 m, lost speed, fell into a flat tailspin and collided with the surface of the earth near the village of Kokpatas, 30 km northeast of the city of Uchkuduk.
All 200 people on board were killed, including 9 crew members. This is the largest plane crash in the history of Soviet aviation and the Aeroflot company in terms of the number of victims, as well as the largest plane crash in the history of Tu-154 aircraft.
Tu-154 crash in Omsk
178 dead
votpuske.ru
On October 11, 1984, at the Omsk-Central airport, a Tu-154B-1 aircraft (board number 85243), operating flight No. 3352 on the Krasnodar-Omsk-Novosibirsk route, collided with three airfield vehicles performing work on the runway.
The disaster occurred due to the fault of the air traffic controller of the launch control tower, who fell asleep at work. Having allowed cars to enter the runway, he did not turn on the “runway occupied” light board.
This is the largest disaster in the history of Soviet and Russian aviation on the territory of present-day Russia.
Il-62 crash in Moscow
176 dead
wikimedia.org
On October 13, 1972, in the Moscow region on the shore of Lake Nerskoye, an Aeroflot Il-62 airliner crashed while landing at Sheremetyevo Airport, operating an international charter flight Paris-Leningrad-Moscow.
All 174 people on board (164 passengers and 10 crew members) died in the disaster. At the time of the events, it was the largest air disaster in the world.
The exact cause of the disaster has not been established; the probable cause is an incorrect altimeter setting.
Major aviation accidents are less common than, for example, fatal accidents, but such accidents cause widespread public outcry, especially in cases where they happen to famous people, have a large number of victims or other exceptional circumstances. The following are several air transport emergencies that occurred in Russia in the 21st century.
Tu-154 accident near Irkutsk in 2001
On Wednesday, June 4, 2001, Tu-154 made a flight from Yekaterinburg to Vladivostok with refueling in Irkutsk.
On the day of the crash, the airliner, which received the name “Ussuriysk,” had made more than 11 thousand takeoffs and landings and had flown almost 21 thousand hours. The plane with which this plane crash happened was produced in 1986. The airliner was flown by an experienced crew, the pilot of the aircraft flew almost 13.5 thousand hours, the co-pilot - 6.8 thousand hours, worked for the airline for 20 years, the navigator - flew 6.4 thousand hours, the flight engineer - 954 hours, all on Tu- 154".
There were 145 people on board, including 9 crew members. Most of the passengers were citizens of the Russian Federation; there were also 12 Chinese citizens on the flight.
The flight proceeded as usual until landing at Irkutsk airport. The catastrophic situation developed rapidly (only 15 seconds). All attempts by the aircraft crew to level the plane were unsuccessful due to lack of altitude. The plane went into a tailspin and fell to the ground. The Tu-154 disappeared from radar at 02:08, and already at 03:25 the wreckage was discovered 22 km from Irkutsk.
July 5, 2001, the day after the tragedy, was declared a day of mourning in the Russian Federation. Everyone on board died. The investigation into the plane crash did not last long, as all three recorders were found immediately. Experts blamed crew errors as the cause of the crash.
Terrorist attacks "Tu-154" and "Tu-134" in 2004
In August 2004, almost simultaneously, explosive devices were detonated on the Tu-154 (Siberia Airlines, route Moscow - Sochi) and Tu-134 (Aviaexpress, Moscow - Volgograd), which were carried on board by suicide bombers. Both planes crashed, forty-six people died in the Tu-154, forty-four people died in the Tu-134. The first flight departed from Domodedovo at 21:25, the second at 22:00, also from Domodedovo. The T "u-134" was the first to disappear from the screens (at 22:56), and a few minutes later the connection with the "Tu-154" was also lost.
The wreckage and remains of passengers who died in the plane crash with the Tu-134 were discovered in the Tula region at 2:00, and the Tu-154 at 08:15 in the Rostov region. The investigation quickly established the cause of the crash.
The causes of the plane crash were the same - a terrorist attack. It was committed by Chechen suicide bombers A. Nagaeva and S. Dzhebirkhanova. The terrorists assembled explosive devices already on board, in the toilets. The power of the explosions could have been small. As a result of the terrorist attacks, everyone on board both one and the other aircraft was killed. The total number of victims was 90 people.
A-320 crash on May 3, 2006
Another aviation accident in Russia occurred on May 3, 2006 in Sochi. The plane of the national air carrier of Armenia was flying from Yerevan to Sochi. There were one hundred and five passengers and eight crew members on board. Most of the passengers and all crew members were citizens of Armenia, there were 26 Russians on the plane, and one Ukrainian and one Georgian were also on this flight. Among the passengers was also Arthur Tumasyan, one of the authors of the Comedy Club show.
The flight took off from Yerevan and headed for Sochi, the flight proceeded as usual. The weather in Sochi was bad, so the crew decided to return to Yerevan. Later the decision changed: they decided to land in Sochi. Moreover, the weather was better than the landing minimum. However, the plane fell into the Black Sea and was destroyed. Everyone on board died.
According to the official report of the Interstate Aviation Committee of Armenia, the cause of the disaster was the incorrect actions of the pilots and difficult meteorological conditions during the approach. Soon after the plane crash, rumors appeared in the media that there were criminal elements on board and that there was even a shootout. These opinions were subsequently refuted by the official report of the IAC.
A-310 accident at Irkutsk airport on July 9, 2006
In July 2006, the plane flew from Moscow to Irkutsk. The flight proceeded normally, but after landing the crew was unable to stop on the runway and crashed into the garages. There were 203 people on board (8 of them were crew members), 125 passengers died. Of the survivors - 78 people, 63 were injured.
Two flight attendants especially distinguished themselves, who, at the cost of their own lives and health, saved about 50 passengers of the crashed flight. Andrei Dyakonov, according to the testimony of surviving passengers, acted strictly according to instructions. When the fire started, the young man knocked down the door of the plane and began to literally push people out. When the ship began to fall apart, the flight attendant apparently did not have time to jump out. Andrei Dyakonov died and was posthumously awarded.
The emergency exit was also opened by Victoria Zilberstein, a twenty-two-year-old flight attendant. She got out from under the rubble of seats and luggage, got to the emergency hatch and began to let people out. Victoria herself was the last to leave the plane through this hatch. The girl suffered a concussion, but after recovering, she was able to start working again.
Experts blamed the cause of the crash, like many other aviation accidents, on the wrong actions of the pilots. The criminal case was closed due to the death of the suspects. During the investigation, the cause was also cited as equipment malfunction and other factors, which cannot be reliably determined.
Crash during landing in Perm in 2008
In the Boeing 737 crash, which occurred on September 14, 2008, 11 km from Perm airport, everyone died - only 82 people. The flight was flying along the Moscow - Perm route, but not far from its final destination the plane crashed to the ground and was destroyed. This incident was the first crash of a Boeing 737 on Russian territory.
The fall of the Polish presidential plane
The crash of the Tu-154 in Smolensk was a disaster in which almost the entire high military command of Poland, the president and his wife, and famous Polish politicians died. The delegation was heading to Russia to attend mourning events on the occasion of the anniversary of the shooting in Katyn.
The crew of the plane, as it turned out, was not sufficiently prepared for the flight. In fact, only the flight engineer on the day of departure had a valid permit to fly the Tu-154. In addition, the crew did not have up-to-date meteorological data for the Smolensk airport, as well as exact coordinates. Subsequently, some media outlets cited pressure on the pilots from the President of Poland as one of the reasons for the disaster. There was a previous case when the president demanded to change course, but the pilot refused to comply with this request, since otherwise the passengers would be in danger.
There were ninety-six people on board, eighty-eight of them passengers. On this flight, as already mentioned, were the President of Poland L. Kaczynski and his wife, the head of the chancellery, the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, the Deputy Minister of Culture, the head of the National Bank, the head of the National Security Bureau and other prominent political, public, military and religious figures. Lech Kaczynski’s brother was also supposed to be on board, but he was unable to fly due to his mother’s sharply deteriorating health condition.
The flight proceeded normally, and the landing approach was also carried out correctly at first. The plane collided with trees, but, as the commission later established, the conditions were such that even if the aircraft had not encountered an obstacle, a disaster would still have occurred within a few seconds.
According to the final investigation report, the causes of the disaster were difficult meteorological conditions, pilots ignoring warning signals and descending below the minimum altitude, i.e., crew error. In addition, imperfections in the equipment installed on board were revealed.
Crash of the Yak-42 with Lokomotiv on board
The plane crash, which killed the players of the Lokomotiv hockey club, occurred near Yaroslavl on September 7, 2011. The crash occurred during takeoff; the aircraft was in flight for only a few seconds. The liner collided with the lighthouse, crashed into the earth's surface and collapsed. Only one person survived the crash - an equipment engineer. All others (eight crew members and thirty-seven passengers) were killed. Due to the death of the hockey team, Lokomotiv dropped out of the KHL in 2011-2012. Experts called the cause of the crash an error by the pilots: one of them pressed the brake pedals during the take-off run.
Disaster at Kazan airport in 2013
The Boeing 737, owned by the Tatarstan company, was flying from Moscow to Kazan on November 17, 2013. The landing approach was carried out automatically; at some point, signals were heard in the cockpit indicating the maximum proximity to the ground for this altitude. All 50 people on board died. The crash was the largest in terms of casualties in 2013. At the moment, this is the last disaster on regular lines in Russia.
The fall of the Tu-154 of the Russian Ministry of Defense in Sochi
On December 25, 2016, members of the Academic Ensemble flew to the Khmeimim airbase in Syria to congratulate Russian military personnel on the upcoming New Year holidays. Refueling was initially planned in Mozdok, but due to unfavorable weather conditions it was moved to Sochi. The airliner successfully took off from Sochi, but disappeared from radar within two minutes. The aircraft crashed into the Black Sea. All the people on board (eighty-four passengers and eight crew members) were killed.
An aircraft accident is characterized by certain circumstances that usually end in tragedy. In this case, a technical malfunction of the aircraft and crew errors or overload probably led to the disaster. This is exactly what the commission found. There is also a version that there was a stranger in the cockpit who did not have permission to fly.
Plane crashes in Russia in 2017
The list of aviation accidents for 2017 in Russia includes only 15 incidents. This is less than last year's figure by 53.1%. In 2016, the number of disasters and aviation accidents that occurred in the Russian Federation was 32 cases. Only 22 people died in aircraft accidents in 2017. Compared to the previous year, a decrease of 81.1% was recorded (in 2016 - 119 victims). The number of victims also decreased significantly: 29 people in 2017 versus 132 in 2016. According to official data from the Ministry of Emergency Situations, most disasters in previous years occurred in the Southern and Far Eastern (twenty-four percent each), as well as in the Central (seventeen percent) Federal District. Most aircraft crashed in the Southern Federal District (33%), helicopters - in the Far Eastern Federal District (45%).