An-12 crash near Yeniseysk (1979)

The An-12 crash near Yeniseysk was an aviation accident that occurred on the night of Friday, 24 August 1979 in the vicinity of Yeniseysk. An An-12B military transport aircraft of the Norilsk Joint Aviation Detachment of the Aeroflot enterprise was performing cargo flight SU-22200 (carrying aviation containers) on the route Norilsk — Krasnoyarsk, but 2 hours 15 minutes after departure from Alykel Airport (Norilsk) both engines on the right side (engines No. 3 and No. 4) failed at an interval of 8 seconds. The crew descended to a safe flight altitude (6,600 m), but 3 minutes after the failure of the right engines both engines on the left side (engines No. 1 and No. 2) failed at an interval of 52 seconds, completely depriving the aircraft of engine thrust, which the crew reported to the controller. Unable to land at Yeniseysk Airport, in rain on a moonless night, the crew decided to make a forced landing on the terrain directly beneath the aircraft (swampy taiga with rugged terrain 17.9 km south of Yeniseysk Airport), but during the landing the aircraft banked to the left, struck the ground, swung round by 90°, and on further collision with trees broke into three parts and caught fire. Of the 16 people on board the aircraft — 6 crew members and 10 passengers (including 3 children) — 10 were killed in the crash: all 6 crew members and 4 passengers; later one more passenger died in hospital; 5 people survived with serious injuries.

Sequence of events

An-12B USSR-12963 was operating flight SU-22200 from Norilsk to Krasnoyarsk carrying 6 UAK-2.5 aviation containers with a total weight of 1920 kg. On 23 August, at 23:22 local time, flight SU-22200 took off from the runway of Alykel Airport, after which it climbed to a flight level of 7800 m. In violation of NPP GA-78, the transport service, with the crew's consent, registered 7 passengers on the flight as service passengers (the crew of a Mi-6 helicopter of the Krasnoyarsk Joint Aviation Detachment, a KGB officer and the underage son of flight engineer Zhukov). Before departure the crew also took three more unregistered passengers (a woman with two children).

3 minutes after passing the Yeniseysk Airport NDB, at a distance of 42 km from the airport, 2 hours 15 minutes later, engines No. 3 and 4 stopped at an interval of 8 seconds (at 01:35:55 and 01:36:03 on 24 August) with automatic feathering of the propellers. The crew performed all the operations provided for by the flight manual, including increasing the power of the remaining engines to take-off power, descended from 7,800 m to 6,600 m because level flight at the 7,800 m flight level was impossible with two engines running, and at 01:38:32 reported the engine failure to the Yeniseysk Airport controller. Then, at an interval of 52 seconds (at 01:39:21 and 01:40:13), engines No. 2 and 1 stopped at a distance of 75 km from Yeniseysk Airport. At 01:40:35 the crew decided to proceed to Yeniseysk for a forced landing and began a 180° left turn. The aircraft rolled out of the turn at 21:43:10 at a distance of 70 km from the airport and at an altitude of 5,000 m. Lacking unambiguous information from the navigation instruments due to low voltage in the electrical network, and out of sight of the ground and the natural horizon, the crew, while descending, turned the aircraft more than necessary. Then, seeing the lights of Yeniseysk through gaps in the clouds, they turned the aircraft to the right. The crew maintained the most favourable flight speed (290—310 km/h), which ensured achieving the aircraft's maximum lift-to-drag ratio in flight and maintaining the minimum rate of descent of 5-10 m/s. At 01:46:15 at an altitude of 4000—4500 m the crew started the TG-16M APU after an unsuccessful attempt to start it at a higher flight altitude, and at 01:47:17 tried to start engine No. 2, but without success. The TG-16M, having run for about 9 minutes, stopped spontaneously. At 01:51:08 the crew reported an altitude of 1,800 m. At 01:55:39 at an altitude of 600 m, captain Mikhankov realised that it would not be possible to reach Yeniseysk Airport and decided to make a forced landing outside the aerodrome. The bad weather conditions (cloud cover 9/4 points cumulonimbus at a height of 800 m, rain, visibility 10 km, calm, moonless night) and the rugged, forested terrain ruled out the possibility of a safe landing. The landing on the forest was made blind, with no visual visibility and no possibility of manoeuvring to choose a landing site. The landing lights did not come on due to low voltage in the on-board network.

At 01:56:08 flight SU-22200 collided with trees at a pitch angle of 8.5° with no bank. As it approached the ground and collided with trees, a progressive left bank developed, reaching 25-30°. After the left wing panel and engine No. 1 (outermost left) struck the ground at a distance of 169 m from the point of first contact with the trees, the aircraft swung round by 90° and during further movement the fuselage broke into three parts (the middle part from frame 14 to 43) …