Aeroflot Flight A-13

Aeroflot Flight A-13 (Рейс A-13 Аэрофлота Reys A-13 Aeroflota) was a scheduled Soviet domestic passenger flight from Baku, Azerbaijan to Fort-Shevchenko in Kazakhstan that crashed on 18 August 1973 shortly after takeoff, killing 56 of the 64 passengers and crew aboard. The Antonov An-24 had suffered an engine failure on takeoff and was attempting to return to the airport when it struck an oil rig cable at low altitude resulting in a crash. At the time, it was the second deadliest accident involving the An-24 and remains the second deadliest aviation accident in Azerbaijani history. The engine failure had been caused by the effect of continuous overheating on the performance of the blades.

Accident

At 18:36 MSK on 18 August 1973, CCCP-46435 took off from Baku-Bina International Airport for an approximately 300 mi flight to the Kazakh town of Fort-Shevchenko. Weather at the time was fair with ten kilometers of visibility, and wind coming from the north. On board were sixty passengers, including eleven children, and four crew who were on their second flight of the day. Just 30 ft above the runway, the An-24 suffered an uncontained failure of the left engine. At 90 ft the crew retracted the flaps and began turning left at an altitude of 120 ft. As it turned, the left wingtip struck the cable of an oil rig in the Caspian Sea, shearing it off. The plane descended, striking a pipeline, before crashing near a highway at 18:51 MSK. 54 people on board were killed and eight others seriously injured including the flight's captain and flight engineer.