Accident of Aeroflot Douglas DC-3 CCCP-L946
Douglas DC-3/C-47B-5-DK (DC-3) · Loss of control
From Riga-Spilve Central Airport, Latvian SSR to Vnukovo International Airport (VKO)
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
- 13 · all aircraft and ground
- Ground fatalities
- Unknown
- Occupants
- Unknown
- Survivors
- 13
- 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
Douglas DC-3/C-47B-5-DK (DC-3)
- Aircraft type
- Douglas DC-3
- 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
- CCCP-L946
- Operator
- Aeroflot
- Onboard fatalities
- 13
- Route
- From Riga-Spilve Central Airport, Latvian SSRTo Vnukovo International Airport (VKO)
Cause areas
- Environmental issues › Operating environment
- Organizational issues › Management
From the investigation findings the Wikipedia article reports, sorted into the NTSB's cause areas with AI assistance.
Approximate · Estimated position: Vnukovo International Airport, the airport the Wikipedia article names as the site. Where on or near it is not known.
From the Wikipedia article
The Aeroflot Douglas DC-3 accident was the second of three accidents involving Aeroflot aircraft that occurred on 5 November 1946. The aircraft were all on approach to Vnukovo Airport and, because of chaotic conditions at the air traffic control there, were kept in the air for so long that a safe landing was no longer possible in each case. In the crash of the Douglas DC-3/C-47B-5-DK (DC-3) CCCP-L946, 13 of the 26 occupants on board the aircraft died.
23 minutes before the crash of the DC-3 the Lisunov Li-2 CCCP-L4181 had already gone down; as the third aircraft that day, the Lisunov Li-2 CCCP-L4207 crashed 25 minutes after the DC-3.
Sequence of events
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 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 airfields at Solnechnogorsk or Klin. As a result, at times up to 17 aircraft were simultaneously on approach to Vnukovo. This heavy traffic overwhelmed the air traffic controllers at Vnukovo; they had many aircraft first fly holding patterns before granting clearance to approach.
On the instructions of air traffic control, the Douglas DC-3 CCCP-L946 flew holding patterns over Moscow for about 2 hours. At 18:27 the aircraft approached on an approach heading of 110 degrees in dense fog (visibility approx. 600 metres, cloud base 30–50 metres). At a height of 10 to 15 metres, 300 to 400 metres after passing over the radio beacon “T”, the crew decided to carry out a missed approach and abruptly increased engine power for this purpose. The aircraft's angle of attack increased while the DC-3 lost speed. The aircraft then crashed at 18:30 in the middle of the grounds of Vnukovo Airport, 600 to 700 metres from the radio beacon “T”. The captain, the first officer, the flight engineer and 10 passengers were killed. The radio operator and the other 12 passengers were injured.
Investigation and cause
Causes
The investigators attributed the causes of the accident essentially to five factors:
An insufficiently founded, erroneous weather forecast prepared by the staff of the Vnukovo weather station between 12 and 17 o'clock. The weather forecast was not prepared in accordance with the observed weather conditions and was not corrected in time, even though the weather did not improve as forecast.
The release of flights from the departure airports at the discretion of the persons responsible there without coordination with Vnukovo Airport. Because of this, air traffic control at Vnukovo had no precise schedule of aircraft arrival times.
The lack of discipline of some airport managers at the departure airports, in particular that of Vilnius Airport, who, contrary to regulations, still let aircraft depart for Moscow at least 30 minutes before sunset. The Lisunov Li-2 CCCP-L4207, which took off in Vilnius, had moreover taken off from Vilnius Airport with defective navigation equipment. The numerous missed approaches of the aircraft resulting from these circumstances hampered flight operations at Vnukovo Airport.
The poorly organised work procedures both at Vnukovo Airport and at the airline Aeroflot.
The disoriented conduct of air traffic control at Vnukovo Airport, which did not correct the failures of the dispatchers at the departure airports by diverting flights, so that a large number of aircraft were in the airspace over the airport at nightfall.
Translated into English with AI assistance from the German Wikipedia article “Flugunfall der Douglas DC-3 CCCP-L946 der Aeroflot” (revision 237031185, retrieved 2026-09-19) by its authors, under CC BY-SA 4.0. Extracted as plain text: references, tables, images and some sections are left out; the translation may contain errors, and long articles were cut to their first 700 words. Read the article
Sources
German Wikipedia article: Flugunfall der Douglas DC-3 CCCP-L946 der Aeroflot
- Translation
- Into English with AI assistance; names of linked operators and aircraft types from Wikidata. It may contain errors.
- Revision
- 237031185 · 2023-09-04 · retrieved 2026-09-19
- Wikidata
- Q116693614
- 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
- de Wikipedia article "Flugunfall der Douglas DC-3 CCCP-L946 der Aeroflot" (page 10907291, revision 237031185), translated into English with AI assistance
- Date
- Wikipedia infobox: date
- Place and country
- Wikipedia infobox: site
- Map position
- airport the Wikipedia infobox site links (Wikidata code, OurAirports)
- 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 DC-3 carrying 22 passengers from Riga to Moscow-Vnukovo: a state airline passenger flight. The article: "The captain, the first officer, the flight engineer and 10 passengers were killed."
- Fatalities
- Wikipedia infobox: aircraft fatalities
- Ground fatalities
- not stated in the Wikipedia infobox
- Summary
- Wikipedia article lead
Source notes (1)
- Wikipedia · Facts from the German Wikipedia article's infobox, translated into English with AI assistance, not checked against an investigation report. Independent review pending.