Azerbaijan Airlines Flight 217
Antonov An-140-100 · Controlled flight into water
From Heydar Aliyev International Airport (GYD) to Aktau International Airport (SCO)
Event
- Event typeAccident: someone killed or seriously injured, or the aircraft substantially damaged (NTSB definition). Incident: an occurrence that affected or could have affected safety, short of that. Glossary
- Accident
- Event fatalities
- 23 · all aircraft and ground
- Ground fatalities
- Unknown
- Occupants
- 23
- Survivors
- 0
- InjuriesFatal: death within 30 days. Serious: over 48 hours in hospital within a week, most broken bones, severe bleeding, nerve or organ damage, or serious burns. Minor: anything less. Glossary
- Unknown
- OperationWhat kind of flying it was, grouped by the rules it flew under: airline (US Part 121), air taxi and commuter (Part 135), general aviation (Part 91 and similar), military or government. Glossary
- Airline
Antonov An-140-100
- Flight
- J2217
- Aircraft type
- Antonov AN-140
- Category
- Airplane · from aircraft type
- RegistrationThe aircraft's tail number, such as N12345 or G-ABCD. Registrations are reissued, so the same one years apart can be a different aircraft. Glossary
- 4K-AZ48
- Operator
- Azerbaijan Airlines
- Onboard fatalities
- 23
- Route
- From Heydar Aliyev International Airport (GYD)To Aktau International Airport (SCO)
Approximate · Coordinates from the Wikipedia article; not checked against an investigation report.
From the Wikipedia article
Azerbaijan Airlines Flight 217 was a scheduled passenger flight between Baku and Aktau, Kazakhstan that crashed into the Caspian Sea at ca. 22:40 on 23 December 2005. The flight was operated by an Antonov An-140.
Accident
Around five minutes after a night-time departure from Baku Airport, the crew reported a systems failure. Heading over the Caspian Sea at night without flight instruments made it difficult for the crew to judge their flight parameters. Whilst attempting to return to Baku, the aircraft crashed shortly afterwards on the shore of the Caspian Sea, killing all 23 passengers and crew on board.
Investigation and cause
Investigation
It seemed the aircraft had taken off "with caged gyro horizons". Investigations from the Kharkiv State Aircraft Manufacturing Company found that during the climb, the aircraft's three independent gyroscopes had failed and were not providing stabilised pitch, roll, heading, and altitude performance information to the crew.
Text from the Wikipedia article “Azerbaijan Airlines Flight 217” (revision 1366784922, retrieved 2026-09-18) by its authors, under CC BY-SA 4.0. Extracted as plain text: references, tables, images and some sections are left out. Read the article
Sources
Wikipedia article: Azerbaijan Airlines Flight 217
- Revision
- 1366784922 · 2026-07-30 · retrieved 2026-09-18
- Wikidata
- Q4832380
- Licence
- Text CC BY-SA 4.0, by the article's authors; Wikidata CC0; town positions GeoNames (CC BY 4.0)
Where each value comes from
- Record
- Wikipedia article "Azerbaijan Airlines Flight 217" (page 26933576, revision 1366784922)
- Date
- Wikipedia infobox: date
- Place and country
- Wikipedia infobox: site
- Map position
- Wikipedia article coordinates
- Aircraft, operator and route
- Wikipedia infobox: aircraft type, registration, operator, origin and destination; route airports from the linked airport articles' Wikidata codes (OurAirports)
- Operation
- airline flight number in the infobox
- Fatalities
- Wikipedia infobox: aircraft fatalities
- Ground fatalities
- not stated in the Wikipedia infobox
- Summary
- Wikipedia infobox: summary
Source notes (1)
- Wikipedia · Facts from the Wikipedia article's infobox and coordinates, not checked against an investigation report. Independent review pending.