Aeroflot Flight 9981
Antonov An-124-100 · On Aeroflot Flight 9981 (flight number: SU9981), an accident involving an Antonov An-124-100 cargo aircraft occurred on 8 October 1996
From Chkalovskiy Air Base (CKL) to Zayed International Airport (AUH)
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
- 4 · all aircraft and ground (occupants minus survivors)
- Ground fatalities
- 2
- Occupants
- Unknown
- Survivors
- 21
- 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-124-100
- Aircraft type
- Antonov AN-124
- 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
- RA-82069
- Operator
- Aeroflot
- Onboard fatalities
- 2 (occupants minus survivors)
- Route
- From Chkalovskiy Air Base (CKL)To Zayed International Airport (AUH)
Cause areas
- Personnel issues › Miscellaneous
- Personnel issues › Experience/knowledge
- Personnel issues › Action/decision
From the investigation findings the Wikipedia article reports, sorted into the NTSB's cause areas with AI assistance.
Approximate · Coordinates from the Wikipedia article; not checked against an investigation report.
From the Wikipedia article
On Aeroflot Flight 9981 (flight number: SU9981), an accident involving an Antonov An-124-100 cargo aircraft occurred on 8 October 1996. The Aeroflot aircraft, which on that day had flown a charter cargo flight from Chkalovsky military airfield to Turin Airport, crashed near San Francesco al Campo shortly after a missed approach at the destination airport, killing two occupants of the aircraft and two people on the ground.
Accident sequence
On the approach to Turin the pilots received clearance to land on runway 36. On the first landing attempt a missed approach was carried out, during which the pilots flew over the runway at a height of only 15 metres. In the small town of San Francesco al Campo, which lies to the north beyond the runway, the aircraft clipped trees and houses at an altitude of 329 metres above sea level and finally crashed into a house located at an elevation of about 330 metres above sea level. The elevation of the Turin runway is 304 metres above sea level. Two occupants of the Antonov and two residents of the house were killed in the accident.
Investigation and cause
Cause
The investigation found that the minimum distance from the runway surface reached by the 24 wheels of the main landing gear during the overflight was less than one metre. According to the investigators, poor coordination and training of the crew (the captain had only 431 hours of flight experience on the aircraft type flown), poor approach planning and a late decision to go around at a point when the heavy aircraft had almost touched down had contributed to the crash.
At that time runway 36 was being renewed near the runway threshold. Of the instrument landing system only the localizer was in operation, as the glide path indicator was switched off during the works. The usable length of the runway was reduced from 3300 to 2350 metres because of the ongoing works. All of this information was included in a regular NOTAM and the crew was informed accordingly on first contact with Turin air traffic control.
Translated into English with AI assistance from the German Wikipedia article “Aeroflot-Flug 9981” (revision 262012835, 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: Aeroflot-Flug 9981
- Article
- Aeroflot-Flug 9981
- Translation
- Into English with AI assistance; names of linked operators and aircraft types from Wikidata. It may contain errors.
- Revision
- 262012835 · 2025-11-30 · retrieved 2026-09-19
- Wikidata
- Q90500337
- 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 "Aeroflot-Flug 9981" (page 11240321, revision 262012835), translated into English with AI assistance
- Date
- Wikipedia infobox: date
- Place and country
- Wikipedia infobox: site
- Map position
- Wikipedia article 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
- flight number in the article title
- Fatalities
- Wikipedia infobox: aircraft fatalities plus ground fatalities (aircraft occupants minus survivors)
- Ground fatalities
- Wikipedia infobox: ground fatalities
- Summary
- Wikipedia article lead
Source notes (2)
- Wikipedia · Facts from the German Wikipedia article's infobox, translated into English with AI assistance, not checked against an investigation report. Independent review pending.
- The Wikipedia infobox's fatality count includes the ground fatalities (its survivors account for everyone else aboard); those aboard who died are that count minus the ground fatalities.