Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky Air Flight 251 (2021)
Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky Air Enterprise Antonov An-26B-100 · Controlled flight into terrain due to pilot error
From Yelizovo Airport (PKC) to Palana Airport (UHPL)
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
- 28 · all aircraft and ground
- Ground fatalities
- Unknown
- Occupants
- 28
- 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-26B-100
- Flight
- PTK251
- Aircraft type
- Antonov AN-26
- 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
- RA-26085
- Onboard fatalities
- 28
- Route
- From Yelizovo Airport (PKC)To Palana Airport (UHPL)
Cause areas
- Personnel issues › Task performance
- Personnel issues › Miscellaneous
From the investigation findings the Wikipedia article reports, sorted into the NTSB's cause areas with AI assistance.
Approximate · Coordinates from the Wikipedia article; not checked against an investigation report.
From the Wikipedia article
Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky Air Flight 251 (PTK251) was a domestic Russian scheduled passenger flight from Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky to Palana, both in Kamchatka Krai in the Russian Far East. On 6 July 2021, the Antonov An-26 serving the flight crashed on approach to Palana, killing all 28 passengers and crew on board.
Accident
Flight 251 was a domestic scheduled passenger flight from Elizovo Airport, Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky to Palana Airport, Palana, Russia. The flight departed from Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky at 12:56 local time (00:56 UTC) and was due to land at Palana at 15:05 local time (03:05 UTC). The aircraft passed safely through the area control centers and at 14:09 was transferred to the ATC of Tigilsky District, where the captain contacted Palana for information on weather conditions. Transcripts of the conversations between the Palana airport controller and the pilot reveal that the controller informed the flight that cloud base at the airport was at 720 m. The airline's rules prohibited visual approaches to the airport from the sea side when cloud ceilings were lower than 750 m, so the controller suggested that the flight approach the airport from the land side using the available navigation beacons. The pilot rejected that suggestion, stating that there was no published approach from the land side and that he would proceed with a visual approach from the sea. The controller again reminded the pilot that the sea approach was not recommended, due to the thickening fog around the airport, that was partially covering the mountains between the Sea of Okhotsk and the airport. The last contact with the aircraft was at 14:48 local time (02:48 UTC), when the crew reported their altitude as 800 m.
The aircraft was on final approach for landing when contact was lost about 10 km away from Palana's airport. No go-around was reported by ATC. The weather in the area was cloudy. The aircraft reportedly collided with a steep cliff with a maximum elevation of 263 m. When it collided with the cliff, it was at an altitude of 200 m, below the minimum height for the approach, and was outside of the proper approach path. Upon impact, the aircraft was completely destroyed. Only a portion of the plane's tail remained on the cliff after the impact; the rest of the debris slid down the cliff and into the Sea of Okhotsk, leaving only a skid mark on the cliff to indicate where the accident had taken place.
Investigation and cause
Investigation
The Interstate Aviation Committee is responsible for investigating aviation accidents in Russia. The Investigative Committee of Russia proposed three possible causes of the crash, namely inclement weather, technical failure, or pilot error. On 9 July, the aircraft's flight data recorder (FDR) was found. A spokesman said that "no critical damage" was found during a cursory investigation and that it would be decoded in Moscow. The cockpit voice recorder was recovered the same day, but was too badly damaged, with only fragments of the case being found, and its data could not be retrieved.
On 17 July, Rosaviatsia (the Federal Air Transport Agency), released their first analysis of the FDR. After the aircraft had reached the Palana non-directional beacon (NDB), crossing at an altitude of 800 m, it then turned outbound from the NDB with the intention of visually circling back for the final approach to the airport. The air traffic controller told the crew they were on a bearing of 340 degrees (north-northwesterly rather than the west-northwest 289 bearing instructed by the NDB procedure). After communication with the air traffic controller the crew reported they were descending to 600 m, but did not confirm if they reached that altitude and did not ask for any further descent. The crew flew the base and final turns, and the FDR did not record any lowering of the landing gear or flaps. The aircraft rolled out of the final turn about 12 km from the airport, on a heading of 140 degrees (roughly southeast), heading directly towards the airport. A minute before hitting terrain, the controller informed them they were on a bearing of 320 degrees and about 9 km from the aerodrome. The terrain at the point of impact is about 260 m high, on a coastal cliff topped with trees (tree height 10 m).
Rosaviatsia recommended, amongst other incidents, that the crash of RA-28715 in 2012 (that also attempted to land at Palana) should be reviewed, to assess the implementation of recommendations for flight safety which had arisen from that accident.
Final Report
The final report of the accident was released sometime in 2025 by the Interstate Aviation Committee (IAC). The investigation revealed that the crew hadn't discussed their altitude with themselves and had failed to monitor the altitude and their sink rate before impact. The accident was classified as a controlled flight into terrain incident and including ways to counter a failure in CFM and flying into terrain.
Text from the Wikipedia article “Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky Air Flight 251 (2021)” (revision 1339297670, 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: Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky Air Flight 251 (2021)
- Revision
- 1339297670 · 2026-02-19 · retrieved 2026-09-18
- Wikidata
- Q107431180
- 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 "Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky Air Flight 251 (2021)" (page 68170214, revision 1339297670)
- 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.