2021 Ilyushin Il-112 accident near Kubinka

The 2021 accident of an Ilyushin Il-112 near Kubinka occurred on 17 August 2021. On that day the only airworthy Ilyushin Il-112 to date crashed on a factory flight of the aviation group UAC after an engine fire had broken out shortly after takeoff from Kubinka military airfield. All three crew members were killed in the accident.

Accident sequence

On the day of the accident the aircraft had taken off from Moscow-Zhukovsky Airport and landed at 11:09 local time on the runway of Kubinka military airfield. From there the three-member crew was to carry out practice flights in preparation for planned demonstration flights as part of the VII International Military-Technical Forum “Army 2021”. At 11:14 the aircraft took off again. Four minutes after takeoff the aircraft was on approach for a go-around manoeuvre, when a fire broke out in the right engine at low altitude. The automatic fire suppression was unsuccessful, as were the subsequent measures taken by the crew. To clarify the situation, the crew had decided to abort the approach to the runway and to enter a traffic circuit. According to unofficial information, anomalies in the engine's airflow (“gas-dynamic stability”) had led to damage to it, or rather to damage to the turbocompressor, and at the same time to damage to fuel lines. As a result, the fire was burning not only in the engine but also in the cavities of the wing. After 45 seconds of fire the temperature in the wing reached about 600 degrees; at that point a duralumin aileron control rod lost its strength. The aircraft began to roll to the right because the aileron, which was needed for the asymmetric flight condition, was now failing. That the aileron had failed had already been suspected as the cause of the crash on the day of the crash. The sequence as now established is again confirmed: with the rolling motion the aircraft went into a right turn, during which the speed decreased, and the aircraft finally turned all the way onto its back and crashed into a wooded area about 2.5 km east of the approach point of runway 22. The aircraft broke apart on impact and burned out; all three occupants were killed. The accident occurred at 11:18. Since it was a prototype, the investigation report will not be published at the request of the customer.