1989 Ilyushin Il-76 accident near Leninakan
Aeroflot Ilyushin Il-76TD · Controlled flight into terrain
From Ulyanovsk-Barataevka Airport, Russian SFSR to Shirak International Airport (LWN)
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
- 15 · 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
Ilyushin Il-76TD
- Aircraft type
- Ilyushin IL-76
- 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-76466
- Operator
- Aeroflot
- Onboard fatalities
- 15
- Route
- From Ulyanovsk-Barataevka Airport, Russian SFSRTo Shirak International Airport (LWN)
Cause areas
- Personnel issues › Task performance
- Personnel issues › Action/decision
- Personnel issues › Miscellaneous
- Personnel issues › Experience/knowledge
From the investigation findings the Wikipedia article reports, sorted into the NTSB's cause areas with AI assistance.
Approximate · Estimated position: Gyumri, near the place the Wikipedia article names. Not the accident site.
From the Wikipedia article
The 1989 accident of an Ilyushin Il-76 near Leninakan occurred on 20 October 1989, when an Aeroflot Ilyushin Il-76TD, which was operating a training and cargo flight from Ulyanovsk-Baratayevka Airport in the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic to Leninakan Airport in the Armenian Soviet Socialist Republic, was flown into a mountain on final approach. All 15 occupants on board died in the accident.
Accident sequence
During the approach to Leninakan the crew received the instruction to descend to 3,300 metres. During the descent the approach controller gave the barometric pressure at the airport as 637 mm Hg. He then cleared the crew of the Ilyushin to descend to 1,100 metres. The crew, who had misunderstood the radio message, set the barometric pressure on the radio altimeter to 736 mm Hg. This resulted in an altitude difference of approx. 1,100 metres. The aircraft descended at a vertical speed of 10 metres per second. After the aircraft had descended below the glide path during the approach, which was conducted with restricted visibility due to night, the Ground Proximity Warning System activated at an altitude of 270 metres. The flight engineer realised that the barometric altimeter was set incorrectly and informed the captain of this 19 seconds after the warning tone sounded. For reasons that could not be determined, the captain did not intervene to correct this. Ten seconds later the aircraft struck a mountain at a speed of 440 km/h and broke apart on impact. All 15 occupants were killed.
Investigation and cause
Cause
It was determined that the accident had occurred because of the incorrectly set barometric pressure on the altimeter. The incorrectly set value had led to a descent below the minimum safe altitude. The crew had furthermore failed to use a radio altimeter. The captain's failure to take corrective action after the flight engineer's warning was also named as a factor in the final report. In this context, inadequate crew resource management and the crew's lack of training for the event of the Ground Proximity Warning System sounding were also criticised. It was furthermore established that the captain had been flying to Leninakan for the first time on this flight and that the student pilot had been sitting in an Ilyushin Il-76 for the first time.
Translated into English with AI assistance from the German Wikipedia article “Flugunfall einer Iljuschin Il-76 bei Leninakan 1989” (revision 251249414, 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 einer Iljuschin Il-76 bei Leninakan 1989
- Translation
- Into English with AI assistance; names of linked operators and aircraft types from Wikidata. It may contain errors.
- Revision
- 251249414 · 2024-12-14 · retrieved 2026-09-19
- Wikidata
- Q16662499
- 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 einer Iljuschin Il-76 bei Leninakan 1989" (page 12139864, revision 251249414), 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
- Reviewed correction (2026-09-26): An Aeroflot freighter on a combined training and cargo flight: the state airline's own transport and training flight. The article: "an Aeroflot Ilyushin Il-76TD, which was operating a training and cargo flight from Ulyanovsk-Baratayevka Airport"
- 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.