Il-18 crash near Mineralnye Vody (1961)

The 1961 Il-18 crash near Mineralnye Vody was an air disaster that occurred on a Sunday evening on New Year's Eve, 31 December 1961, near the town of Mineralnye Vody. An Il-18V airliner of the Yerevan Joint Aviation Detachment of Aeroflot was operating a charter passenger flight on the Moscow — Yerevan route, but when approaching Yerevan's Erebuni Airport the airliner diverted to the alternate airport in Tbilisi. Soon the aircraft departed from Tbilisi airport for Mineralnye Vody, but during the approach to Mineralnye Vody airport the airliner abandoned the approach and went around. During the go-around the airliner flew into a hill and was completely destroyed. Of the 119 people on board — 110 passengers and 9 crew members — 32 were killed and 87 survived.

Chronology of events

On 31 December 1961, Il-18V aircraft USSR-75757 was operating a charter passenger flight from Moscow to Yerevan. From 29 to 31 December, unfavourable weather conditions prevailed in the Caucasus region and many airports were closed. Yerevan airport was also closed, so aircraft 75757 landed at the alternate airport — Tbilisi. Since the airports had been closed for a long time, many passengers preferred to return their tickets and travel by surface transport. By 31 December about five hundred passengers had accumulated at Tbilisi airport.

By the evening of 31 December the airport in Mineralnye Vody was opened, so the management of the Georgian Directorate of the Civil Air Fleet contacted the management of the Armenian Independent Aviation Group and asked their permission to use two Armenian Il-18s standing idle in Tbilisi to organise additional flights to Mineralnye Vody, which could relieve the Tbilisi air terminal. The management refused, but on learning that Yerevan airport would not open in the near future, it was forced to agree to this proposal.

One of the aircraft chosen was aircraft 75757. Although boarding for the additional flight had not been announced, passengers began to cram into the aircraft in a disorganised crowd. Under these conditions no ticket control was carried out, and the boarding stairs had to be driven away with people still standing on them. After the stairs had been removed, it turned out that two crew members — the flight engineer and one of the stewardesses — had not managed to board, so a ladder was lowered for them, by which several more passengers climbed into the aircraft.

Crash

At 16:55 the Il-18 departed from Tbilisi airport.

The Il-18 reached Mineralnye Vody without complications. At that time the sky over the airport was completely overcast with a cloud base of 120 metres, the horizontal visibility was 2000 metres and light snow was falling. After rolling out of the fourth turn (onto final approach) the aircraft was 20 kilometres from the airport and had deviated 800—900 metres to the right of the centreline. When the distance to the runway had decreased to 8 kilometres, the precision approach radar controller guided them onto the landing course, thanks to which the aircraft passed the outer marker (3850 metres from the runway) on the glide path, on a heading of 117° at a height of 250 metres. After that the controller asked the pilots whether they could see the runway lights. The answer was negative, and so the crew decided to go around.

During the go-around the Il-18 deviated considerably to the right. At 17:58, flying in darkness on a heading of 188° at a height of 90 metres relative to the airport, the aircraft flew into the wooded slope of a hill 3 kilometres south-west of the airport. The airliner hurtled through the forest for about 280 metres, then it was swung to the left and caught fire. The crash killed the trainee radio operator (Nikoghosyan), a stewardess (Shakhatuni) and 30 passengers.