An-12 crash near Omsk

The An-12 crash near Omsk was an aviation accident that occurred on Tuesday, 25 March 1986. An An-12 military transport aircraft belonging to PO Polyot (USSR Ministry of General Machine Building) was operating a cargo flight on the Tbilisi—Omsk route, but while landing at the Omsk airfield it descended sharply and prematurely, and 2130 metres from the runway threshold it crashed into approach light supports and fell to the ground. All 9 people on board were killed — 6 crew members and 3 passengers.

Chronology of events

On 25 March 1986, An-12AP aircraft USSR-11795 was operating a cargo flight from Tbilisi to Omsk. On board the aircraft were 6 crew members (aircraft commander (KVS), co-pilot, navigator, flight engineer, radio operator and flight attendant) and 3 passengers (employees of PO Polyot), as well as 10,400 kilograms of cargo — electric motors for washing machines, which were produced at PO Polyot. The alternate airport was Roshchino airport (Tyumen).

On this day there was bad weather in Omsk — haze and low cloud. While descending from cruising level the pilots repeatedly asked for information about the weather conditions, but they were given incorrect data. Having received the correct weather data, the commander decided to make an approach, but the weather at Omsk-Severny airfield was worse than the minimum permitted. Before this the crew of aircraft USSR-11795 had listened to the weather report for Omsk-Tsentralny airport, but visibility there had deteriorated to 200 metres. After descending from cruising level the pilots lost the possibility of landing at Tyumen's Roshchino airport as well due to a shortage of fuel; landing at the second alternate airport (Petropavlovsk airport, Petropavlovsk, Kazakh SSR) was also impossible — a deterioration of weather conditions was also expected there.

The approach to Omsk-Severny airfield was made using the Katet-S system. But during the approach, after passing the outer locator beacon (DPRM) at a height of 285 metres (according to the procedure it should have been 250 metres), aircraft USSR-11795 descended sharply and prematurely, and 2130 metres from the runway threshold it struck the tops of three approach light supports 7 metres high, swung to the right and fell to the ground. The aircraft was completely destroyed by the impact with the ground and partially burned; all 9 people on board were killed.