Accident of Aeroflot Lisunov Li-2 CCCP-L4181

The crash of the Aeroflot Lisunov Li-2 CCCP-L4181 was the first of three aviation accidents that occurred on 5 November 1946 involving Aeroflot aircraft. They were all on approach to Vnukovo Airport and, because of chaotic conditions at the air traffic control there, were kept in the air until a safe landing was in each case no longer possible. In the crash of the Lisunov Li-2 CCCP-L4181, five crew members, the only occupants of the aircraft, died.

The first crash occurred outside the airport, the other two at Vnukovo. The other two aircraft that crashed in the Vnukovo area on that day were the Douglas DC-3 CCCP-L946, which crashed 23 minutes later, and the Lisunov Li-2 CCCP-L4207, which crashed 48 minutes after the first crash.

Flight sequence

The Lisunov Li-2 CCCP-L4181 of the Turkmen directorate of Aeroflot had actually been scheduled to operate a combined cargo and passenger flight from Aşgabat to Moscow-Vnukovo as early as 3 November. Because of a persistent bad weather front, however, the aircraft was then stuck at Voronezh Airport for two days. All passengers who had booked the flight eventually made the journey to Moscow by train. The Lisunov was therefore used for a pure positioning flight to Vnukovo, in order to operate passenger flights again from there. On board the aircraft was only a five-member crew, consisting of the captain, first officer, flight engineer, a female flight attendant and a male flight attendant. The aircraft took off from Voronezh at 14:15.

Accident sequence

Difficult weather conditions had prevailed in the Moscow region for days. On 5 November 1946 the weather service of Vnukovo Airport issued an incorrect forecast according to which visibility conditions in the Moscow region were supposed to improve between 15 and 17 o'clock. The report confused the crews of the approaching aircraft. In addition, air traffic control failed to divert aircraft to alternate airports in Solnechnogorsk or Klin. This led to up to 17 aircraft at times being on approach to Vnukovo at the same time. This heavy air traffic overwhelmed the air traffic controllers at Vnukovo; they had many aircraft first fly holding patterns before giving clearance for approach.

On the instructions of air traffic control, the Lisunov Li-2 CCCP-L4181 had already been flying holding patterns over Moscow for 2 hours when it was given landing clearance at 18:07. By this time the fuel in the tanks was already almost used up. While flying a standard turn at altitude under difficult weather conditions (visibility approx. 300–400 metres, cloud base 30–50 metres), the radial engines suddenly began to falter and the aircraft lost speed. The aircraft crashed into a roadside ditch near the village of Yamishchevo at the level of kilometre 34 of the Minsk–Moscow highway. The fuselage collapsed at the level of the 16th to 18th frame. The three members of the cockpit crew died at the crash site, and the female and male flight attendants later succumbed to their injuries in hospital.