1992 Antonov An-124 accident in Ukraine

The 1992 accident of an Antonov An-124 in Ukraine occurred on 13 October 1992. The third prototype of the Antonov An-124-100 cargo aircraft crashed on an Antonov test flight near Kodra, Ukraine, killing eight of the nine occupants on board.

Accident sequence

On that day the aircraft was to carry out certification flights departing from and returning to Kyiv-Hostomel Airport. The flight test manoeuvres also included a high-speed descent, in which the controllability of the aircraft during such a manoeuvre was to be tested. While the descent was being carried out and the aircraft was being accelerated from 530 km/h to 650 km/h with the rudder fully deflected to the right, a loud bang was heard in the cockpit, and there were vibrations as well as a sudden drop in airspeed. At an altitude of 5,800 feet and a speed of 614 km/h the radome suddenly failed, whereupon the forward cargo door also tore off. Debris from the nose structure damaged engine No. 3 (right inboard), which then failed as well, as did hydraulic system No. 3. As a result, various aircraft systems failed, including the flight control system. The angle-of-attack indicator fluctuated between 12°-25°, the airspeed indicator dropped to 0 km/h, and the altimeter reading suddenly rose by 1,200 m. Various audible and visual alarms were active in the cockpit, which caused great psycho-emotional stress for the crew and impaired their ability to counter the situation calmly. While the crew tried to respond appropriately to the incident, they lacked information on airspeed, altitude and angle of attack because of the defective systems. When they increased thrust, engine No. 4 (right outboard), which had also ingested parts of the torn-off nose, finally failed as well. The pilots then increased the thrust of engine No. 1 to 58 per cent, which suddenly led to a pronounced rolling motion. The aircraft vibrated and was difficult to control. The captain instructed the flight engineers to bail out with their parachutes. One of them, who was in the rear part of the aircraft, jumped with his parachute through the emergency exit hatch and was seriously injured on landing in the forest. An Antonov An-22 took off and flew parallel to the An-124 to help the crew members determine their airspeed. Since the airspeed determined in this way, approx. 450 km/h, was far above the landing speed, the captain had the high-lift devices extended. Due to an asymmetric extension of the high-lift devices, the rate of descent increased. The Antonov first collided with 35 to 40 metre tall trees and finally crashed into a wooded area 1.5 kilometres south of Kodra and 43 kilometres west of Hostomel Airport, killing the remaining eight occupants.