Crash of an Antonov An-124 in Irkutsk
| Crash of an Antonov An-124 in Irkutsk | |
|---|---|
 A picture of the crash site |
|
| Accident summary | |
| Accident type | Crash in residential area after engine failure |
| place |
Irkutsk , Russia
|
| date | December 6, 1997 2:42 PM |
| Fatalities | 23 |
| Survivors | 0 |
| Fatalities on the ground | 45 |
| Aircraft | |
| Aircraft type |
 Antonov An-124-100
|
| operator |
 Ukrainian Cargo Airways
|
| Mark |
RA-82005
|
| Departure airport |
Irkutsk Northwest Airport , Russia
|
| Stopover |
Vladivostok Airport , Russia
|
| Destination airport | Cam Ranh Bay Air Force Base , Vietnam
|
| Passengers | 15th |
| crew | 8th |
| Lists of aviation accidents | |
The crash of an Antonov An-124 in Irkutsk on December 6, 1997 is the most serious crash of this aircraft type. An Antonov An-124-100 had an accident on a flight of Ukrainian Cargo Airways from Irkutsk-Northwest Airport via Vladivostok to Cam Ranh Bay Air Force Base in Vietnam . The plane crashed shortly after taking off from Irkutsk-Northwest Airport on two blocks in Irkutsk after several engines failed shortly after take-off. All 23 occupants of the machine and 45 people died on the ground in the crash.
plane
The Antonov An-124-100 was built in 1985 and made its maiden flight on October 30, 1985 before being taken over by Aeroflot . On February 14, 1988 it was transferred to the 566th Air Transport Regiment of the Soviet Union Air Force , where it was operated under the aircraft registration number СССР-82005 . By the time of the accident, the machine had completed 1,034 flight hours on 576 flights. After the collapse of the Soviet Union , the Antonov became part of the Russian Air Force and from then on bore the aircraft registration number RA-82005 . The machine was equipped with four Lotarjow D-18T engines. At the time of the accident, the Antonov was leased to the Ukrainian Cargo Airlines by the Air Force.
the accident
On 6 December 1997, the An-124 was two fighter jets of the type 27 Sukhoi Su- transport with a total weight of 20 tons to Vietnam.
The An-124 took off from Irkutsk-Northwest Airport at 14:42 local time. Engine no. 3 failed three seconds after take-off and at a height of about 3 meters. Shortly afterwards, engine no. 2 also failed. After engine no. 1 also failed 8 seconds later at a height of 66 meters, the machine began to sink. Although the crew tried to keep the machine under control with the help of the remaining running engine, they were unable to crash into apartment block No. 45 on Graschdanskaya Street (Russian: Гражданская улица, Graschdanskaya ulitsa), 1,600 meters behind the runway turn away. The fully fueled machine went up in flames when it crashed. The stern of the Antonov badly damaged apartment block No. 120 and an adjacent orphanage.
consequences
All 23 inmates of the Antonov and 45 people were killed on the ground in the accident. Among the dead were 12 children from the orphanage. As their homes were destroyed in the accident, 70 families were left homeless.
Cause of accident
After the accident, a special commission investigated the cause of the crash.
The two flight data recorders were in the seat of the fire after the crash. They had been so badly affected by the fire that no useful data could be obtained from them. The accident report stated that the cause of the crash was an engine failure.
Since temperatures of −20 ° C prevailed in Irkutsk at the time of the crash, it was assumed that the failure of the engines could be reduced by mixing winter fuel with conventional kerosene, which was still in the tanks from the last return flight from Vietnam. Such a mixture could have led to the formation of ice crystals which could clog the fuel filters, thereby cutting off the kerosene supply to the engines. In 2009, the chief designer of Ivchenko Progress , Fyodor Muravchenko, the company that had developed the turbines for the An-124, declared a similar scenario to be the cause of the accident.
During an interview with the newspaper Moskovsky Komsomolets , test pilot Alexander Akimenkov said that the accident was caused by a failure of the on-board electronics after a passenger in the flight used a radio telephone made in China.
Major General Boris Tumanov, who was chairman of the air safety service of the Russian Air Force from 1993 to 2002 and a member of the investigative commission into accidents involving military aircraft, told the Moskovsky Komsomolets that the accident was caused by the failure of three engines.
Similar incidents
Accidents with serious crashes of large cargo planes in residential areas were also:
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b Accident report AN-124 RA-82005 , Aviation Safety Network (English) accessed on March 4, 2019.
- ↑ Alexander Velovich: Multiple engine failure blamed for An-124 Irkutsk accident . Flight International (English). December 17, 1997. Archived from the original on June 12, 2017. Retrieved March 4, 2019.
- ↑ a b The accident of the An-124 in Irkutsk (1997) . Retrieved March 4, 2019., RIA Novosti (Russian), accessed March 4, 2019.
- ↑ I can no longer remain silent on the Irkutsk tragedy , Nezavisimaya Gazeta (Russian) of March 11, 2009, accessed on March 4, 2019.
- ↑ Did the Jak-42 crash because of a phone call? ( Russian ) Archived from the original on October 27, 2013. Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved March 4, 2019, Moskovsky Komsomolets September 11, 2011, March 4, 2019.
- ↑ Former head of air safety in the Air Force reveals the secrets of high-profile air accidents in recent years ( Russian ). Retrieved March 4, 2019., Moskovsky Komsomolets, August 7, 2014.
Coordinates: 52 ° 21 '2 " N , 104 ° 12' 48" E