1951 Aradan Aeroflot An-2 crash
Antonov An-2T · Unexplained disappearance
From Kyzyl Airport, RSFSR to Abakan Airport, RSFSR
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
- Unknown
- Ground fatalities
- Unknown
- Occupants
- Unknown
- 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-2T
- Aircraft type
- Antonov AN-2
- 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
- СССР-А2597
- Operator
- Aeroflot
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Kyzyl Airport, RSFSRTo Abakan Airport, RSFSR
Cause areas
- Organizational issues › Management
- Personnel issues › Experience/knowledge
- Personnel issues › Action/decision
- Environmental issues › Conditions/weather/phenomena
- Environmental issues › Operating environment
From the investigation findings the Wikipedia article reports, sorted into the NTSB's cause areas with AI assistance.
Not plotted · Not plotted: the Wikipedia article gives no coordinates, and its site names no town or airport that matches exactly.
From the Wikipedia article
The 1951 Aradan Aeroflot An-2 crash was an aviation accident that occurred on 21 April 1951. An Antonov An-2 aircraft, operated by Aeroflot disappeared on a flight from Kyzyl to Abakan with four crew on board. The incident was the first fatal loss of the Antonov An-2. The aircraft's wreckage was not located until 2009 and was positively identified in 2019.
Flight
The An-2 took off from Kyzyl at 12:05 Moscow time on a cargo flight to Abakan with 485 kg of furs. The aircraft never arrived at Abakan; search and rescue operations were conducted but suspended a few days later as no trace of the aircraft nor the four crew were found.
Investigation and cause
Investigation
According to the findings of the investigation, the poor organization of the flight and inadequate management of the flight were highlighted as follows:
1) The aircraft was dispatched on a flight from Krasnoyarsk to Kyzyl outside of the schedule. The airports of Abakan and Kyzyl were not notified in time about this flight, its reception, servicing, and the aircraft involved.
All four deceased crew members had never flown the Abakan-Kyzyl route before, even as operational passengers.
The aircraft was dispatched from Abakan to Kyzyl and back according to a weather forecast that was below the established minimum.
Premature termination of communication with the aircraft on the command radio station and failure to use it for flight management within hearing range.
2) Violation by Commander Puzyryov of §§ 84 and 256 NPP-47, resulting in the aircraft, flying in snowfall, potentially icing up (including carburetor icing) and crashing into a mountain during a forced descent with limited visibility. It was also considered that a landslide of rock and snow might have occurred.
3) Poor meteorological support for the flight was identified due to the following reasons:
The weather forecast prepared by the Kyzyl AMSG did not predict wet snow, visibility up to 1 kilometer, and the covering of the Aradan Ridge by clouds.
A storm warning from the Olenya Rechka meteorological station was transmitted to the Kyzyl airport's ADS only 39 minutes after it was received via telegraph, preventing the aircraft from returning to the airport.
Lack of direct telephone communication between AMSG and the telegraph and poor interaction between the GMB and AMSG of Kyzyl.
Findings in 2009 and 2019
In August 2009, blogger Sergey Shishkin and his group filmed the wreckage of an An-2. The video shows landing gear struts, the engine, and parts of the fuselage. The video was uploaded to YouTube on 31 March 2016, titled “Aradan 2009. 10th day.” Shishkin was not able to identify the aircraft.
On 9 June 2019, a helicopter piloted by Alexey Kantsedalov rediscovered the wreckage at an altitude of 1,850 meters (200 meters from the landing site). Kantsedalov saw the remains of the aircraft and, recognizing the first digits of the registration number, confirmed that it was indeed CCCP-A2597:
Text from the Wikipedia article “1951 Aradan Aeroflot An-2 crash” (revision 1363830738, 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: 1951 Aradan Aeroflot An-2 crash
- Revision
- 1363830738 · 2026-07-12 · retrieved 2026-09-18
- Wikidata
- Q130601581
- 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 "1951 Aradan Aeroflot An-2 crash" (page 77792008, revision 1363830738)
- Date
- Wikipedia infobox: date
- Place and country
- Wikipedia infobox: site
- Map position
- none
- Aircraft, operator and route
- Wikipedia infobox: aircraft type, registration, operator, origin and destination; route airports from the linked airport articles' Wikidata codes (OurAirports)
- Operation
- Reviewed correction (2026-09-26): An Aeroflot An-2 carrying furs on a cargo flight between two cities: a state airline transport flight. The article: "The An-2 took off from Kyzyl at 12:05 Moscow time on a cargo flight to Abakan with 485 kg of furs."
- Fatalities
- not stated in the Wikipedia infobox
- 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.