Nizhnevartovskavia Flight 544
Nizhnevartovskavia for United Nations Humanitarian Air Service Mil Mi-8 · Friendly fire incident
From Juba, South Sudan to an unrecorded destination
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
- 4 · all aircraft and ground
- Ground fatalities
- Unknown
- Occupants
- 4
- 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
Mil Mi-8
Approximate · Coordinates from the Wikipedia article; not checked against an investigation report.
From the Wikipedia article
Nizhnevartovskavia Flight 544 was a civilian helicopter operated by Nizhnevartovskavia that was shot down by the South Sudanese army (SPLA) near Likuangole, South Sudan on December 21, 2012, killing all four people on board.
Flight 544 was performing a reconnaissance mission for the United Nations Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) to evaluate overland routes and landing areas for the delivery of humanitarian aid. The flight had originated in Juba. Shortly after taking off from a stopover at Pibor, the helicopter began to take fire from SPLA ground-based anti-aircraft artillery and crashed. The crash site was near the front of ongoing fighting between the SPLA and Murle rebels led by David Yau Yau. The four victims on board were Russian nationals employed by Nizhnevartovskavia.
Investigation and cause
Investigation
The UN took control of the "black box" flight recorder. The transfer of the recorder to the Russian government was delayed by request of the South Sudanese government, which had set up its own investigation committee, and finally completed on January 21.
Text from the Wikipedia article “Nizhnevartovskavia Flight 544” (revision 1351485516, 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: Nizhnevartovskavia Flight 544
- Revision
- 1351485516 · 2026-04-28 · retrieved 2026-09-18
- Wikidata
- Q7888388
- 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 "Nizhnevartovskavia Flight 544" (page 38496167, revision 1351485516)
- 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
- flight number in the article title
- 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.