Volga-Dnepr Airlines accident near Tetovo
Antonov An-12BK · A Volga-Dnepr Airlines accident occurred on 24 July 1992
From Simferopol International Airport (SIP) to Skopje International Airport (SKP)
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
- 8 · all aircraft and ground
- 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-12BK
- Aircraft type
- Antonov AN-12
- 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-11342
- Operator
- Volga-Dnepr Airlines
- Onboard fatalities
- 8
- Route
- From Simferopol International Airport (SIP)To Skopje International Airport (SKP)
Cause areas
- Environmental issues › Conditions/weather/phenomena
- Environmental issues › Operating environment
- Personnel issues › Action/decision
From the investigation findings the Wikipedia article reports, sorted into the NTSB's cause areas with AI assistance.
Approximate · Estimated position: Tetovo, near the place the Wikipedia article names. Not the accident site.
From the Wikipedia article
A Volga-Dnepr Airlines accident occurred on 24 July 1992. On a charter cargo flight of the airline Volga-Dnepr Airlines, an Antonov An-12BK aircraft was flown into a mountain on approach to Skopje Airport. All 8 people on board the Antonov were killed in the incident.
Sequence of events
The aircraft was on landing approach to the capital's airport when a thunderstorm was gathering near the airport. After passing over the Skopje radio beacon on the approach chart, the pilots changed course and tried to fly around the thunderstorm. The approach was continued on a heading of 230 degrees, which, however, led directly towards a mountain range. For a landing on their assigned runway 34 the pilots would have had to hold a heading of 163 degrees.
The pilots had difficulty determining their current position at any given time because the airport's DME was out of service. At 20:23 the last radio contact with air traffic control took place. The pilots flew a 140-degree turn below the minimum safe altitude. In doing so, the aircraft was flown into the 1934-metre-high Lisec mountain at an altitude of 1600 metres near the village of Lisec, which belongs to Tetovo. The Antonov broke apart in the collision and burned out, killing all 8 occupants. The crash site was located 26 kilometres southwest of the destination airport.
Investigation and cause
Cause
The accident was attributed to a combination of several unfavourable factors:
Extremely difficult weather conditions at the destination airport of Skopje and in its surroundings. Thunderstorms and heavy rain prevailed, which set in while the aircraft was on approach to Skopje.
Up to the decision to approach, the crew of the Antonov had no information from air traffic control in Skopje about a thunderstorm over the airport.
Absence of radar monitoring of the flight and failure by the controller to take radio direction-finding bearings with which the aircraft's position could have been determined
Inability of the crew to use the one-dimensional radio equipment on board, either because of its failure or because of the shutdown of the ground receiving equipment when switching to the emergency power supply
the crew's erroneous decision to continue the approach under the given conditions
the crew's erroneous decision to perform manoeuvres during the course in order to circumvent the thunderstorm, while the aircraft's position in relation to natural obstacles along the new flight route was not precisely known
Translated into English with AI assistance from the German Wikipedia article “Flugunfall der Volga-Dnepr Airlines bei Tetovo” (revision 235806307, 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 Volga-Dnepr Airlines bei Tetovo
- Translation
- Into English with AI assistance; names of linked operators and aircraft types from Wikidata. It may contain errors.
- Revision
- 235806307 · 2023-07-25 · retrieved 2026-09-19
- Wikidata
- Q84955155
- 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 Volga-Dnepr Airlines bei Tetovo" (page 10921830, revision 235806307), translated into English with AI assistance
- Date
- Wikipedia infobox: date
- Place and country
- Wikipedia infobox: site
- Map position
- place the Wikipedia infobox site links (Wikidata 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
- operator named as an airline in the infobox
- 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.