Namtsy air accident
Aeroflot Lisunov Li-2 · On 27 December 1951 the air accident near Namtsy occurred, in which all 20 occupants died
From Platon Oyunsky Yakutsk International Airport (YKS) to Vilyuysk Airport, Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic, Soviet Union
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
- 20 · 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
Lisunov Li-2
- Aircraft type
- Lisunov LI-2
- 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-L4228
- Operator
- Aeroflot
- Onboard fatalities
- 20
- Route
- From Platon Oyunsky Yakutsk International Airport (YKS)To Vilyuysk Airport, Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic, Soviet Union
Cause areas
- Aircraft › Fluids/misc hardware
- Personnel issues › Task performance
- Personnel issues › Experience/knowledge
- Organizational issues › Support/oversight/monitoring
From the investigation findings the Wikipedia article reports, sorted into the NTSB's cause areas with AI assistance.
Not plotted · Not plotted: the Wikipedia article gives no coordinates, and its site names no town or airport that matches exactly.
From the Wikipedia article
On 27 December 1951 the air accident near Namtsy occurred, in which all 20 occupants died. The Aeroflot Lisunov Li-2 involved was to fly a domestic Soviet scheduled flight from Yakutsk to Vilyuysk.
Sequence of events
The Li-2 took off at 3:55 Moscow Time (MSK). The last radio contact took place at 4:22 MSK. The pilots reported a cloud base of 1,000 m, a visibility of 4 km and a temperature of −30 °C. They did not answer the subsequent radio calls.
At 4:26 MSK, at an altitude of 1,000 m, first the right and then the left engine failed. This can be inferred from the fact that the pilots initially tried to feather the propeller of the right engine and continue flying on one engine. When the left engine also failed, they abandoned their attempts. Captain Shebanov then saw the treeless riverbed of the Tarasa, 2 km long and 80–120 m wide, as the only landing option, although he was unable to carry out the calculations required for this. In order to be able to reach the riverbed in a glide, the pilots set the speed control lever to a high setting. Mistakenly, they also extended the landing gear, which they tried to retract again at the last moment. Ultimately the aircraft lost speed and rolled to the left until, banked at 60°, it struck the ground with its left wing with no forward speed approx. 200 m short of the riverbed. The burnt-out wreck was found 90 km north of Yakutsk near Namtsy.
Investigation and cause
Cause
It was determined that the engines failed because the pilots had selected the almost empty rear left tank, which could be read from the corresponding switch. Although there were no records of the quantity, there were at least 1,217 kg of fuel on board at the time of takeoff. According to statements by a flight engineer, there were 150 kg of fuel in the rear left tank at the time of the handover to the accident crew. After that, a further 40 kg were drawn off to check the engines.
When the engines failed, the pilots behaved chaotically; they extended the landing gear and did not switch off the ignition for the engines.
It was considered an accident factor that the newly formed crew was flying a Li-2 for the first time without having previously completed appropriate training with a proficiency check. In addition, the Yakutsk aviation division's management, although it had recorded many incidents, was criticised for its deficient support for Captain Shebanov, for whom the accident flight was the very first unsupervised flight after a 7-month break.
Translated into English with AI assistance from the German Wikipedia article “Flugunfall bei Namzew” (revision 251248860, 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 bei Namzew
- Article
- Flugunfall bei Namzew
- Translation
- Into English with AI assistance; names of linked operators and aircraft types from Wikidata. It may contain errors.
- Revision
- 251248860 · 2024-12-14 · retrieved 2026-09-19
- Wikidata
- Q98081343
- 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 bei Namzew" (page 11404585, revision 251248860), translated into English with AI assistance
- Date
- Wikipedia infobox: date
- Place and country
- Wikipedia infobox: site
- Map position
- none
- 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 is an airline according to Wikidata
- 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.