Ganja air accident

On 15 May 1997 a Yakovlev Yak-40 crashed on a training flight operated by Azerbaijan Airlines, killing all six occupants.

Sequence of events

That day the pilots carried out a total of four proficiency check flights; three of them were completed, and one included a go-around. During the approach the Yak-40 flew over an area in which Azerbaijani soldiers, who were on their way back to their camp after a shooting exercise, were shooting at road signs with their submachine guns for entertainment. As the Yak-40 flew a right turn, a soldier fired at a sign standing in the direction of the passing aircraft. Stray shots struck the left side and damaged a pressurised oxygen container (two bullet holes were found in that area). This caused a fire to break out, which quickly spread to the passenger cabin and the tail unit. While attempting an emergency landing, the Yak-40 went into a dive after the pitch control had been destroyed or the pilots had been incapacitated by the heat and the inhaled combustion products. The aircraft, in landing configuration, finally struck the ground at 13:05 with a bank angle of 70° on an undeveloped area on the border of the Shamkir and Goygol districts, 5,160 m from the runway threshold (and thus also 5 km from the city limits), and burned out.