Il-76 crash in Urumqi
Silk Way Airlines / Azal Avia Cargo Ilyushin Il-76 · Problems with powerplant thrust with the aircraft critically overloaded
From Taiyuan (PRC) to Baku (Azerbaijan)
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
- 7 · 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
- 0
- 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-76
- 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
- 4K-AZ27
- Onboard fatalities
- 7
- Route
- From Taiyuan (PRC)To Baku (Azerbaijan)
Cause areas
- Aircraft › Aircraft oper/perf/capability
From the investigation findings the Wikipedia article reports, sorted into the NTSB's cause areas with AI assistance.
Approximate · Estimated position: Ürümqi, near the place the Wikipedia article names. Not the accident site.
From the Wikipedia article
The Il-76 crash in Urumqi was an aviation disaster that occurred on Tuesday, 18 May 2004. An Ilyushin Il-76TD cargo aircraft of the Azerbaijani airline Silk Way Airlines (Azal Avia Cargo), operating a flight on the Taiyuan — Urumqi — Baku route, crashed shortly after departing from Urumqi Airport. On board were 7 crew members, all of whom were killed.
Investigation and cause
Investigation
The investigation of the crash was conducted by the aviation authorities of China (CAAC) with the participation of specialists from the Interstate Aviation Committee (MAK), since the occurrence affected the interests of four CIS countries: Azerbaijan (registration), Ukraine (owner of the aircraft and operator), Russia (designer) and Uzbekistan (manufacturer).
The official investigation established that the main cause of the accident was critical overloading of the aircraft — the weight of the goods on board was almost three times the maximum permissible take-off weight for Il-76 type aircraft. The readout of the flight recorders also indicated problems that had arisen with powerplant thrust under the critical weight conditions.
Despite the gross violations identified, not a single employee of the airline Azal Avia Cargo was punished.
Translated into English with AI assistance from the Russian Wikipedia article “Катастрофа Ил-76 в Урумчи” (revision 153722655, 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
Russian Wikipedia article: Катастрофа Ил-76 в Урумчи
- Article
- Катастрофа Ил-76 в Урумчи
- Translation
- Into English with AI assistance; names of linked operators and aircraft types from Wikidata. It may contain errors.
- Revision
- 153722655 · 2026-06-27 · retrieved 2026-09-19
- 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
- ru Wikipedia article "Катастрофа Ил-76 в Урумчи" (page 11529434, revision 153722655), 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
- operator named as an airline in the infobox
- Fatalities
- Wikipedia infobox: aircraft fatalities
- Ground fatalities
- not stated in the Wikipedia infobox
- Summary
- Wikipedia infobox: summary
Source notes (1)
- Wikipedia · Facts from the Russian Wikipedia article's infobox, translated into English with AI assistance, not checked against an investigation report. Independent review pending.