Aircraft accidents, incidents and air crashes in the USSR and Russia. Aircraft accidents, incidents and air crashes in the USSR and Russia The history of the appearance of the Ruslan aircraft

Exactly 20 years have passed since the tragic crash of the An-124 plane onto a residential building in Irkutsk. Residents of house No. 45 on Grazhdanskaya Street were doing their usual things on this Saturday: someone was watching TV, someone was busy in the kitchen. Parents and children were planning the weekend, and at that time the children from the neighboring orphanage No. 1 were walking in the yard.

The An-124 "Ruslan" is a heavy transport carrier with a payload capacity of 120 tons. On December 6, he was supposed to take off from the airfield of the Irkutsk Aviation Plant to transport two Su-27 fighters assembled at the plant to Vietnam.

On December 6, 1997, at 14.42 local time, the Ruslan, unable to gain altitude, crashed directly into a residential area of the aircraft manufacturing town in Irkutsk.

All that was left of the huge plane was the tail section. Photo: From personal archive/ Boris Khlebnikov

Recalls the events of that day Igor Petrovich Utkin, lieutenant colonel of internal service, deputy head of the 2nd fire department of Irkutsk:


Igor Utkin

“On this day, I, as the commander of a separate detachment of the Ministry of Emergency Situations, went on duty as part of the group accompanying this flight. I was personally at the airfield when the Ruslan took off. It became immediately clear that something was wrong with the plane. It was clear that he could not gain altitude. Everything happened very quickly, in a matter of seconds. When Ruslan began to descend, we already understood that the crash site would be a residential area.”

The Ministry of Emergency Situations teams managed to get to the scene of the disaster quickly. A terrible picture appeared before the eyes of the rescuers: the collapsed plane damaged several wooden barracks at once, part of the orphanage No. 1 was burning, the huge tail of the aircraft crushed the five-story building. But the most terrible sight was house No. 45, completely engulfed in fire.

Fire extinguishing. Photo: From personal archive/ Boris Khlebnikov

"After the fall it began terrible fire, continues Igor Utkin. - Ruslan’s tanks were filled to capacity; they were almost two railway tanks. The impact caused aviation fuel to splash out and the fire flared up instantly with enormous force. People caught in the fire wave died in a matter of seconds.”

By the time the fire crews arrived, the surviving people were rushing about on the balconies and in the open windows, it was clear that panic and fire were pushing them outside, a few more minutes and someone could have jumped out. Firefighters had to deploy light ladders and remove people directly from the burning balconies.

“Of course the situation was very difficult psychologically. The family of one of our employees lived in house 45. At the time of the disaster, his younger brother was in the apartment, sitting at the table and doing his homework. We found him in this position in a burnt-out apartment. The boy didn’t have time to understand anything, not even to jump up,” says Igor Utkin.

House number 45 on Grazhdanskaya Street. Photo: Irkipedia.ru / Boris Slepnev

“My family still lives in a dormitory whose windows overlook the very place where the plane crashed,” recalls Natalya Bochkarnikova. “That day, I came home from work, tired. I remember seeing a plane flying low through the window and even managed to shout to my son to move away from the window. Then everything was like in a dream... I jumped out into the yard, it was already full of people, the forty-fifth house was in some kind of thick fog and fire, and from there burning people were running out to meet us. We placed them in their rooms, revived them, and provided medical assistance. Everything is still before my eyes.”

Extinguishing the burning fuel and rubble lasted more than a day and a half. All this time, the firefighters were supported by residents of the area. Despite the double cordon of the meta-disaster, the townspeople managed to bring tea and sandwiches to the rescuers.

“My friends and I wanted to help in some way,” says the Irkutsk resident Andrey Nikolaev, - Then we still didn’t know exactly what had happened and what was burning, we just walked towards the glow. As a result, they went straight to the fire. Houses and cars parked nearby were on fire. Rescuers carried the wounded. It was scary to see how dead people They were stacked in front of the school building, which was very close to the site of the tragedy. Of course, there was no help from us; they simply didn’t let us in. It worked on site without us great amount cadets, fire service, police. Through the cordon, ordinary people passed tea, buns, and some pies. Many were crying. I was struck by the feeling of extraordinary unity. Trouble brought us together."

Burnt cars. Photo: From personal archive/ Boris Khlebnikov

During the disaster and fire, 72 people died. Of these, 23 were crew members and 49 Irkutsk residents, including 14 children. Witnesses say that on this day a wedding was planned in house No. 45. In the morning, a multi-colored poster “Tili-tili, dough” hung on the entrance door. The bride lives here." The newlyweds left just a few minutes before the plane crashed, but there was nothing left in the apartment. a large number of their guests.

“There was a feeling of unreality of what was happening. “It feels like you’re in a horror movie,” recalls a resident of an aircraft manufacturing town. Natalia Pushkareva. - Several of my friends died in this fire. There were also those who miraculously escaped death. I just went about my business a minute before the disaster and turned the corner of the house. One of our friends died in his apartment along with his child. They were found in a chair, sitting in an embrace.”

Firefighters worked in the cold without noticing it. Photo: Irkipedia.ru / Boris Slepnev

There were only a few children in Orphanage No. 1 at the time of the disaster. Some went to the Children's Art Center, others to the pool and skating rink. In the fifth group there were only three girls left and their teacher, who 15 minutes before the tragedy brought her son Makar to the group. As employees of the institution later recalled, the fire literally rushed into the room, Makar burst into flames like a candle, and other children were also burning.

At this very time, pupils of the orphanage Yana Potanina and Lyuda Shashkina were playing on the playground very close to the 45th house. The girls were missed only in the evening, when all the children from the orphanage were transported to boarding school No. 13. The director of the orphanage, Galina Kryukova, and her staff wandered for a long time near the cordon, questioning the firefighters. At night, the woman was called for identification. The girls' bodies were burned so badly that they were reduced to 70-80 centimeters.

Exactly five days later, 15-year-old Anya Zernis, who was injured in a fire in the group, died in an Irkutsk hospital. Makar Mileshko was flown to Moscow, but his life could not be saved; he died in mid-January 1998.

Sergei Shoigu at the scene of the disaster. Photo: Irkipedia.ru / Boris Slepnev

The perpetrators have not been named

The investigation into the causes of the accident raised many questions. It was not possible to definitively answer why Ruslan fell. During the fire, the “black boxes” were almost completely burned out and the information from the crew’s conversations could not be restored. It is known that three engines of the plane failed at once, so the ship was unable to rise into the air higher than 66 meters. Some experts believe that this was due to the aircraft being overloaded. The case materials also contain a reference to possible problems with the D-18T engines, which were produced by the Ukrainian company Motor Sich OJSC. These units apparently had problems with gas-dynamic stability, especially at high angles of attack.

An-124 Ruslan plane crash

On December 6, 1997, in the aircraft manufacturing village of Irkutsk-II, the An-124 Ruslan military transport aircraft crashed. On board were two Su-27 fighters. According to official data, 71 people died.

Planes and helicopters in distress rarely fall on cities, destroying everything on earth with fire and metal. This time, the 400th aircraft with 100 tons of kerosene crashed into the aircraft manufacturing village of Irkutsk-II.

On December 6, 1997, the An-124 Ruslan military transport aircraft flew on the route Moscow - Irkutsk - Vladivostok - Vietnam. On board were two Su-27 attack aircraft, worth about $30 million each. The December Ruslan flights were carried out in accordance with a government decision (April 1997) ordering the Ministry of Defense to transport four Su-27UBK and two Su-27SK aircraft to Vietnam. It was planned to use one An-124 “Ruslan” and one An-22 “Antey” for the operation. From December 1 to 4, Ruslan made a flight along the route Irkutsk-II - Vladivostok - Phan Rang (where the airbase of the Vietnamese National Army is located) - Irkutsk-II, delivering two Su-27UBK to the customer. Two other Su's of this modification were loaded into the transport vehicle before the fateful takeoff on December 6.

The airport in Irkutsk is located next to residential buildings. For the time being, few people remembered this. In Russia, the airports of Omsk and Syktyvkar, as well as Bykovo, are located within the city limits. Yes, and dozens largest airports of the world are located within the city limits. For example, the main air gate England - Heathrow. And in Hong Kong, landing planes maneuver between skyscraper towers. But in the “Irkutsk history” this circumstance turned out to be fatal.

According to eyewitnesses, the Ruslan engines began to malfunction even on takeoff: pops, splashes, flames. However, the crew is no longer able to cancel the takeoff: as professionals say, the “time for making a decision” has passed.

Unfortunately, the crew's internal communications were not preserved - both flight recorders ended up in the epicenter of the fire and were severely damaged. The flight director's tape recorder contained several episodes of negotiations with the Ruslan crew.

The crew commander requested permission to take off.

“Flight director: “Zero zero five, it’s quiet near the ground, take-off is cleared.”

After 1 minute 20 seconds, they were informed from the ground: “Zero zero five, flames coming out of the left engine.”

The crew informed the dispatcher about the failure of two left engines. The ship's commander, Vladimir Fedorov, gave the order to restart the outermost failed engine - immediately the connection was lost.

Ahead of Ruslan's course are the high-rise buildings of an aircraft manufacturing village, where thousands of people were located. The crew did everything possible to avoid hitting the high-rise buildings. The pilots tried to reach a wide street, or better yet, a vacant lot. They managed to steer the vehicle away from the high-rise buildings, but the Ruslan tilted to the left.

At 14.40 the plane hit a wooden two-story house with its wing; This caused the car to turn 180 degrees, and it crashed onto a five-story brick building, hitting a nearby orphanage. More than 140 tons of fuel from the aircraft tanks spilled onto the ground and immediately ignited. Thus ended the last, 25-second flight of “Ruslan”...

According to eyewitnesses, the plane fell completely silently. Fortunately, the children had “quiet hour” at this time - they were in the building and not on the playground. The teachers and nannies brought almost everyone out and carried them out. And yet, two girls, Yana Potanina and Lyuda Ptashkina, died from suffocation, and several more children were transported to the burn center.

108 people lived in the house at Grazhdanskaya, 45 (the house was completely destroyed). The initial information about 150 dead, broadcast on television channels, turned out to be erroneous. A week before the disaster, the gas in the village was turned off, which made it possible to avoid large casualties and destruction. According to eyewitnesses, one man jumped from the fourth floor to escape.

A few minutes after the disaster, fire trucks arrived at the scene of the disaster and began to evacuate people. Firefighters carried twenty-seven people out of the burning apartments.

Soon a group of Irkutsk rescuers arrived, and Angarsk and Slyudyansk detachments arrived. On the morning of December 7, Krasnoyarsk, Chita and Ulan-Ude rescuers came to the rescue, cadets of the Higher School of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, police officers came to the rescue...

On the night of December 7, Prime Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin and Minister of Emergency Situations Sergei Shoigu arrived in Irkutsk, the EMERCOM task force - twenty-two rescuers and with them four search dogs.

By the morning the fire was extinguished, but individual sources, mainly building ceilings and fuel, were still smoking and caught fire from time to time. Rescuers continued to clear the rubble in search of the bodies of the dead.

The tail section of the Ruslan, which remained virtually undamaged, rested on a five-story building. On the afternoon of December 7, they decided to drop the tail of the plane to the ground.

All remains of the destroyed Ruslan were promptly removed. Fragments of the plane that could shed light on the cause of the disaster were sent for examination to Moscow.

According to official data, 71 people died. Rescuers found 47 bodies and 19 body fragments; identified 34. For medical care 27 victims contacted, sixteen of them were hospitalized.

At first, nine versions were put forward regarding the causes of the disaster - from design and production defects of engines to substandard fuel.

Immediately after the tragedy, FAS specialists said that they would have to find “that same broken wiring or jammed mechanism that led to the disaster.” Doing this in a huge pile of twisted and burnt metal was not so easy. In such cases, the final assessment of all factors is 80 percent objective.

Minister of Emergency Situations Sergei Shoigu announced that “there is no fault of the crew”; the Ruslan was piloted by experienced, well-trained pilots. The ship's commander, Vladimir Fedorov, had 2,800 flight hours, 110 of which he flew in 1997. Co-pilot Vladimir Ivanov spent 4,020 hours in the air, of which 240 hours were in 1997. These are excellent indicators for military transport aviation pilots.

True, some experts of the Federal Aviation Service believed that in extreme conditions the pilots turned off the wrong engines that began to fail. This is what caused the Tu-134 crash two years ago near Nakhichevan.

The An-124 "Ruslan" aircraft, with tail number 82005, was produced by the Ulyanovsk Production Association on December 31, 1986. Assigned resource - 6 thousand hours; Since the beginning of operation, it has flown 1034 hours. Routine work was carried out on November 1, 1996.

It is unknown whether the disassembled machines were secured correctly. Specialists from Rosvooruzhenie and the Ministry of Defense later called loading the Ruslan with two fighters a “trick on the verge of a foul.” International aircraft trade practice has never seen a Su-27 transported on board an An-124, not counting the first flight of the same crew a week earlier. Su-27 was always transported by sea or by railway- safer and cheaper.

Viktor Tolkachev, technical director and chairman of the board of directors of Volga-Dnepr Airlines (Ulyanovsk), did not agree with this opinion. After all, Volga-Dnepr successfully uses seven Ruslans, transporting oversized cargo around the world. For example, the An-124 delivered five Caterpillar mining dump trucks in six flights from Chicago to Yakutia. Each such vehicle weighs 103 tons. In November 1997, “Ruslan” transferred a “space” 65-ton cargo to Baikonur from California; its main element is the 14-ton American Asiasat satellite.

The Irkutsk disaster is the fourth in Ruslan’s track record. However, previous incidents (October 8, 1992, Kyiv, test flight; November 15, 1993, Kerman airfield, Iran, commercial flight; October 8, 1996, Turin, Italy, commercial flight) had nothing to do with the tragedy of December 6. During testing under extreme conditions, the vehicle was destroyed by a collapsed nose radar fairing. In Iran and Italy, it was the “human factor” that led to the disaster, not aircraft defects.

Another reason that some members of the commission insisted on was the failure of electronic fuel control equipment, which led to the alternate stopping of three engines.

FSB director Nikolai Kovalev in an interview with Interfax said that the act of sabotage is not visible today, but there is a high probability of mixing 60 tons of summer fuel with winter fuel, since Ruslan was heading for warm Vietnam.

The version of low-quality fuel was closest to the manufacturers of D-18T engines - representatives of the Zaporozhye plant "Motorsich", who participated in the work of the commission as experts. The four engines installed on the crashed plane had a reserve life and underwent the necessary routine maintenance.

Fuel samples, aircraft debris and two flight recorders that recorded flight parameters were delivered to Moscow. The Federal Aviation Service has made a preliminary conclusion regarding the fuel located in the tankers of the Irkutsk-II airport; it meets the standards.

True, samples delivered from Vietnam confirmed that one third of the aircraft’s fuel supply was without the appropriate winter additives. Since “Ruslan” stood for more than a day with half-empty tanks in the cold, the water contained in the fuel turned into ice. Some of it remained in the fuel, and some settled in the form of frost on the walls of the fuel tank. During refueling, the fuel became even more mixed with ice. And after starting the engines, crystals began to settle on the grid fuel filter. The ice plug that formed when the power plants were switched to a forced operation mode broke and jammed the fuel distribution mechanism. This could lead to three engines stopping at once. Although, according to experts, the design of the D-18T provides for automatic filter heating. In addition, the system has a bypass route for fuel to enter the engine in case of clogging.

Head of the Russian Operators Association air transport Evgeniy Chibirev added that refueling is carefully monitored, so filling Ruslan with substandard fuel, in his opinion, is impossible.

The following version is popular among Irkutsk aircraft manufacturers. The authorities immediately excluded the fact of sabotage from all options - this is not accidental. Therefore, “Ruslan” died due to someone’s evil intent. While the plane was loading, a lot of people crowded around - anyone could do anything if they wanted. By a strange coincidence, all Ruslan disasters, except the first one that occurred during testing, occur on the eve of a lucrative contract or during its implementation.

Another unexpected assumption was made by the oldest employee of radioecological monitoring of the Hydrometeorological Service: “On the day of the disaster, the air temperature in Irkutsk was 26 degrees below zero with complete calm air. Such weather conditions an atmosphere with a low percentage of oxygen is formed over the city, that is, the air is saturated with exhaust gases and smog big city(it is known that there is a thermal power plant not far from the place where the plane crashed). Low temperatures do not allow the mass of hot air to rise upward, as a result of which a difference in temperature and air composition is created at the border where the airfield meets the city. According to numerous observations by specialists, huge “bubbles” of warm air and smog hover in the city at an altitude of 90 to 300 meters, just on the take-off trajectory of the airliner.” In the presence of all these circumstances, a flameout could occur.

According to experts, this version looks very plausible, but to confirm or refute it, a full-scale simulation of the situation should have been carried out by injecting the appropriate mixture into the engines directly in the parking lot. Sources from the government commission did not rule out that all four engines of the “heavyweight” failed simultaneously. Although over the past 10 years there have been no failures of two or more engines in aircraft of this class.

However, two “black boxes” deciphered on site by Ministry of Defense specialists indicate problems with the engines. What was the reason for the refusal?

The Ruslan itself is a reliable aircraft, but it has what Marshal Shaposhnikov called weak gas-dynamic stability of the engines. They sometimes fall into a mode called surge in aviation, that is, into a dangerous situation when the flow around the compressor blades around the engine changes sharply; this leads to a drop in traction, powerful vibrations and even destruction of the power plant. Such cases occurred in army aviation, but did not lead to accidents or disasters. This happens if the engines have not been run on the ground. The run consumes a lot of fuel and therefore is not always carried out or not completely.

According to general director“Motorsich” by Vyacheslav Boguslaev, cases of surging actually happened on the An-124 in 1991-1993, but together with the Antonov ASTC, the defect was eliminated. Recently, Boguslaev claims, the so-called off-design operation of engines has not been recorded.

ASTC General Director Petr Balabuev did not rule out a “fuel” root cause of the tragedy. In his opinion, it occurred due to water in the fuel, or technology violations when warming up the engines before takeoff. Loss of thrust could also be caused by birds that got caught in the air intakes of the engines.

By January 1998, three versions remained: insufficient reserve of gas-dynamic stability of the engines, problems in the fuel supply system, malfunctions in the electrical and electronic systems of the giant aircraft.

The examination results showed that the aircraft's fuel was suitable for use. Bioclogging could not have caused the disaster; the number of microorganisms in the samples did not exceed acceptable levels.

According to experts, of the three remaining versions, failure of the fuel system is also unlikely: on Ruslans it is reliable. Even if the aircraft is completely blacked out, the fuel supply should not stop and is carried out autonomously. However, any disaster is most often the result not of one specific cause, but of a whole chain of them.

On January 14, 1998, 40 days after the tragedy, Irkutsk residents held a memorial service for those killed in the An-124 Ruslan crash. Relatives and neighbors of the victims, victims, and representatives of the regional and city administration gathered at the memorial sign in Irkutsk-II.

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An-124 "Ruslan" HEAVY TRANSPORT AIRCRAFTAn-124 (NATO code - "Condor") is designed to deliver troops with standard military equipment and weapons from the deep rear to theaters of military operations, transport troops between them and inside rear zones, reinforce the airborne assault with heavy

Initially positioned as a military strategic transport aircraft, this aircraft is currently the most popular in the special purpose market. air transport oversized and non-standard cargo. Many Western airlines charter "Ruslans".

The history of the appearance of the Ruslan aircraft

During the Cold War, when the arms race was going on, Soviet designers developed a machine similar to the American S-5 "Galaxy", but after subsequent changes in the project the aircraft received the designation An-400 and exceeded the initial plans.

In late December 1982, test pilot Vladimir Tersky lifted off the ground the first prototype of a large transport aircraft, which soon acquired its own name. "Ruslan". Under this name, it was demonstrated at the aviation show in France in 1985, and at the same time Western experts learned that it was the development of Kyiv aircraft manufacturers under the leadership of designer-manager V.I. Tolmacheva, which received the designation .

A small part of the aircraft "Ruslan" was assembled at the Kiev plant in the Antonov Design Bureau, but the main production was established in Ulyanovsk at a separate factory complex specially built for these machines. In 1991, aircraft assembly stalled and only after the conclusion of an agreement between Russia and Ukraine it resumed, but at a slower pace. In 1995, Ruslan ceased production. The series ended on the 55th aircraft.

Design features of "Ruslana".

The aircraft has a traditional aerodynamic configuration with a top-mounted wing and a single-fin vertical tail unit and stabilizer. The clean aerodynamic shapes of the supercritical wing are perfectly combined with rich mechanization, including three-section flaps, ailerons and deflecting slats. The wing contains internal fuel tanks that can hold 230 tons of fuel.

Four bypass turbojet engines with thrust reverser, located in pairs on each wing console, develop a total power of 97,720 kgf (4 X 23,430 kgf). Autonomy of starting the main power units and operation of the equipment while parked is possible using two on-board auxiliary units.

Since the vehicle was originally intended for the BTA, it had two lowerable ramps at the front and rear, a raised front part of the fuselage and the ability to change the height of the racks when parked. The titanium floor and dimensions of the cargo compartment were chosen taking into account the “typical” military load, and the landing gear, consisting of five pairs of wheels on each side of the fuselage and four wheels on the two front struts, allows take-off and landing on unpaved airfields.

An-124 bottom view

The wide fuselage and the arrangement of cabins on a double-deck level make it possible to transport up to 120 tons of cargo. On the upper deck there is a crew cabin and a saloon for 88 people with compartments for rest of crew members. The cargo compartment, 36 meters long, 4.40 m high and 6.40 m wide, is located on the lower deck and occupies the entire internal volume of the fuselage. It can accommodate 440 paratroopers or 880 fully equipped soldiers.

Flight performance

Aircraft length – 69.1 m
Aircraft height – 21.8 m
Wing area – 628 m2
Unloaded aircraft weight – 178400 kg
Maximum take-off weight – 392 t
Amount of fuel in tanks – 212350 kg
Engines – 4 X D-18T turbofan engines
Cruising speed – 800-850 km/h
Range with maximum load – 4800 km
Range with 80 t load – 7500 km
Practical ceiling – 11600 m
Number of crew members – 8 people (later 4 people)

Even on an experimental prototype, in December 1985, a Euclid mining dump truck weighing 152 tons was transported to Polyarny (Yakutia) from Vladivostok in two trips.
140 tons of equipment "Ruslan" transported to Moscow for a performance by Pink Floyd from Foggy Albion in May 1989.
Three was chartered by Michael Jackson in 1993 to deliver 310 tons of his cargo to Russia.

A cargo with a total weight of 140 tons was transported to Doha from the capital of France, which is a world record.
On "Ruslana" On November 25, 2015, the S-400 air defense missile system was transported to the Syrian Heimim airfield.
At the Simferopol airfield in Crimea on December 10 and 14, 2015, they met a valuable cargo with Far East– two gas turbine power plants.
On August 15, 2010, the nine strongest people on the planet dragged a weight of 195 tons over a distance of 6 m 39 cm in 13 seconds in Ulyanovsk, setting a new world record.

An-124 accidents

During test flights at maximum speed pressure, the radar fairing collapsed, followed by the entire nose deflector. Some parts of these structures got into the engines and caused them to stop. The crew under the control of commander A.S. Gorbika was unable to reach the landing strip and the car crashed near the village of Kodra in a wooded area. Eight testers died on October 13, 1992.

In 1993, on November 15, while landing in Iran at the Keran airfield, located in a mountainous area, the pilots lost spatial orientation. crashed into a mountain before reaching 44 km from the landing strip, killing 17 people.

On October 8, 1996, it was raining heavily in Turin. Landing in poor visibility conditions, the commander was in the place of former test cosmonaut A. Borodai, who, on the second approach, without observing the landing strip, touched the extended landing gear with a house in the village and the plane fell, taking the lives of two people who were in the building. was destroyed and caught fire, five people were killed and 11 were injured, but the pilot himself survived.

The most resonant disaster happened in Irkutsk in 1997 on December 6. While climbing after takeoff, the plane's engines failed; first the third, then the first and second, and all this within 8 seconds. "Ruslan", having caught the roof of a two-story building, crashed into a four-story one. 23 people on board died, and 70 residents died under the rubble of the building. The cause was water that got into the fuel, which the commission investigating this disaster bashfully kept silent about.

A truly unique aircraft, which has no analogues in the world, created by the work of talented Kyiv aircraft manufacturers. Currently, this is the largest transport aircraft, the production of which has been launched in series.

Video An-124: takeoff

Video An-124: landing

On December 6, 1997, the An-124 Ruslan military transport aircraft crashed into a residential area of Irkutsk immediately after takeoff due to the sequential failure of three of its four engines.

The plane took off from the Irkutsk-2 airfield on Saturday at 14.40 local time (09.40 Moscow time). On board were two Su-27 fighters, assembled by the Irkutsk Aviation Production Association, which were to be delivered to Vietnam.

Within less than half a minute after the plane took off from the runway, the first and third engines switched off, after which the same thing happened with the second engine. An attempt to keep the aircraft on one remaining engine, undertaken by the crew under the command of Lieutenant Colonel Vladimir Fedorov, was unsuccessful, and the aircraft, entering a right roll, crashed onto house No. 45 on Grazhdanskaya Street. The tail of the plane significantly hit house No. 120 on Mira Street, and the remaining debris hit the building of an orphanage located nearby. The severe consequences of the disaster were largely caused by the instantaneous ignition of tens of tons of aviation fuel. A few minutes after the disaster, fire trucks arrived at the scene of the disaster and began to evacuate people. Firefighters carried twenty-seven people out of the burning apartments.

On the night of December 7, 1997, Prime Minister of the Russian Federation Viktor Chernomyrdin and Minister of Emergency Situations of the Russian Federation Sergei Shoigu, an operational group of the Ministry of Emergency Situations - twenty-two rescuers and with them four search dogs - arrived in Irkutsk.

By the morning of December 7, 1997, the fire was localized, but individual sources, mainly building ceilings and unburned fuel, were still smoking and periodically caught fire. Rescuers began clearing the rubble and removing the bodies of the dead. The homeless people were temporarily housed in nurseries. A collection of things and products from the population has been organized.

The tail section of the plane, which remained virtually undamaged, rested on the building adjacent to the burnt house and posed a threat to working rescuers. On the afternoon of December 7, it was decided to drop the tail of the plane to the ground. The remains of the burnt houses had to be completely demolished.

The crew's internal conversations were not preserved - both flight recorders were at the epicenter of the fire and were severely damaged. The commission never came to a clear conclusion regarding engine failure. The reasons for their switching off, both using objective control means and experimentally, could not be definitively established. At the same time, experts have repeatedly expressed their opinion about the design shortcomings of the D-18T engines manufactured by the Ukrainian Motor Sich OJSC (these engines were installed on the deceased An-124).

After the disaster, Minister of Emergency Situations Sergei Shoigu announced that it was not the crew’s fault. The plane was piloted by experienced, well-trained pilots. The ship's commander, Vladimir Fedorov, had 2,800 flight hours, 110 of which he flew in 1997. Co-pilot Vladimir Ivanov spent 4,020 hours in the air, of which 240 hours were in 1997.

In 1999, in Irkutsk, on Mira Street, on the site of one of the destroyed houses, the Church of the Nativity of Christ was erected, the first service of which was dedicated to the memory of the victims.

The material was prepared based on information from RIA Novosti and open sources

Aircraft type An-124-100

Scene of the incident: Turin airport

Crew commander A.D. Borodai

CONDITIONS.

Due to repair work, the length of the runway at Turin Airport was reduced from 3,300 to 2,350 m (the entrance end was moved 950 m further), which was known to the crew.

Also, due to repair work, the course and glide path system operated only in localizer mode.

Weather conditions were poor but exceeded the airport's minimum runway visibility of 1,500 m with low clouds and light rain.

CIRCUMSTANCES.

A gross error in landing calculations and an illiterate decision by the crew commander A.D. Borodai. about the landing put the crew in a hopeless situation, which turned out to be tragic and the last for the two best pilots in Russia on the An-124 aircraft, Alexander Timofeevich Ugryumov and Oleg Igorevich Pripuskov, commander of the second (replacement) crew. Alexey Boroday’s legs were pinched and injured so much that they later had to be amputated. The rest received injuries of varying severity. There were two PICs in the cockpit, one of whom acted as co-pilot A.T. Ugryumov. After leaving the clouds, the plane passed the end of the runway earlier than the crew expected, and at an altitude higher than the calculated one. Believing that the remaining runway length was not sufficient for a safe landing, the co-pilot began to insist on a go-around while the PIC made the decision to land. The plane was descending and flying over the runway. Finally, the co-pilot convinced the PIC and at that moment, when no more than a meter remained between the landing gear wheels and the runway surface, the PIC began a missed approach. However, due to design flaws in the engine control system, as well as the initial error of the PIC in the action plan for bringing the engines into operation, only one engine reached takeoff mode. The plane was unable to gain altitude. Approximately 1 km from the runway, it hit trees at a height of 25 m above the airfield level. It then hit the roof of a two-story house in the town of San Francesco al Campo, fell to the ground, collided nose-first with a farm building and burst into flames. The plane was ferried from the air. Chkalovsky to Turin to pick up several Ferraris and deliver them to Brunei. The plane belonged to Ajax airlines, but was operated by Aeroflot.

CAUSES.

From the conclusion of the Commission of Inquiry:

“The cause of the disaster is:

Failure to follow procedures, instrument landings,

The presence of a third pilot in the cockpit did not contribute to flight safety, but on the contrary aggravated it,

The complexity of the engine/reverse control system MDU D-18 did not reach take-off mode from ground idle,

Insufficient level of pilot training, as well as indecisiveness of the commander.”

CONCLUSIONS.

Poor communication and insufficient crew training.

Poor approach planning, late decision to go around.

Design flaws of the engine control system.

Improve the training system and improve the effectiveness of monitoring the training of aircraft crews on the ground and in the air, convey the conclusions from the AP to all trainees, aiming them at the final positive results of the crew’s work, regularly bring emergency material to the entire flight crew and carry out preliminary, after each flight shift, and a full debriefing,

It was necessary to set the D-18 MDU to flight idle or any other intermediate mode,

Carry out comprehensive modifications to the MDU D-18 engine/reverse control system.