Yak-40 crash in Khanty-Mansiysk

The Yak-40 crash in Khanty-Mansiysk was an aviation accident that occurred on the evening of Saturday, 26 October 1996 at Khanty-Mansiysk Airport. A Yak-40K airliner of the airline Tyumenaviatrans was completing a scheduled domestic flight on the route Tyumen — Khanty-Mansiysk, but during the approach to Khanty-Mansiysk Airport in adverse weather conditions the airliner deviated from its course to the left and descended below the glide path. Soon the crew landed on the helicopter pads, but during the landing roll the airliner collided with three Mi-8T helicopters of the airline Tyumenaviatrans and broke up. Of the 37 people on board — 33 passengers and 4 crew members — 5 were killed and 32 survived.

Crash

On 26 October 1996, Yak-40K RA-88257 departs from the runway of Khanty-Mansiysk Airport with 33 passengers and 4 crew members, flying from Tyumen to Khanty-Mansiysk. In total there were 37 people on board: 33 passengers and 4 crew members.

The crew received clearance for an OSP approach and information on the actual weather, giving a cloud base of 400 metres and a horizontal visibility of 5,300 m. However, during the approach visibility deteriorated due to the onset of a snow squall, which the aircraft entered on final approach. At a distance of 3,300 m from the runway the aircraft crossed the runway centreline and began to drift to the left. 195 metres to the left and 950 metres before the runway end were the helicopter pads, the brightness of whose lights was substantially higher than that of the runway lights. At night and in visibility reduced by heavy snowfall, the crew mistook the helicopter pads for the active runway. At a height of about 120 m, at a distance of 2,840 m from the runway (1,800 m from the helicopter pads), the aircraft had deviated 60 metres to the left of the landing course line and was 30 metres below the glide path. During the further descent the crew, having taken the lights of the helicopter pads for the paved runway, performed an S-shaped manoeuvre and aligned the flight heading with the longitudinal axis of the parking stands.

950 metres short of the runway end and 159 metres to the left of its centreline, the crew landed on the helicopter pads at a speed of 190 km/h. During the landing roll the crew saw obstacles and, to prevent a collision, tried to turn the aircraft to the right, but the short distance and high speed did not allow the collision to be avoided. The Yak-40 successively collided with three Mi-8T helicopters (RA-22313, RA-25144, RA-25939, all belonging to the airline Tyumenaviatrans) and broke up. The first two helicopters were destroyed, and the third lost its tail boom. As a result of the collision, the Yak-40's nose section was destroyed and the left wing panel was torn off. In total 5 of the 37 people on board the Yak-40 were killed; no one on board the helicopters was killed. The actual visibility in the snowfall was 1,400 m, the cloud base — 200 m