Il-18 crash in Sverdlovsk (1960)
Aeroflot (Ural Independent Aviation Group of the Civil Air Fleet, 120th Aviation Transport Detachment) Ilyushin Il-18 · Design deficiencies, icing
From Koltsovo, Sverdlovsk (RSFSR) to Koltsovo, Sverdlovsk (RSFSR)
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
- 1 · all aircraft and ground
- Ground fatalities
- Unknown
- Occupants
- Unknown
- Survivors
- 4
- 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
- Unknown
- 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-18
- Aircraft type
- Ilyushin IL-18
- 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
- CCCP-75648
- Onboard fatalities
- 1
- Route
- From Koltsovo, Sverdlovsk (RSFSR)To Koltsovo, Sverdlovsk (RSFSR)
Cause areas
- Organizational issues › Development
From the investigation findings the Wikipedia article reports, sorted into the NTSB's cause areas with AI assistance.
Approximate · Coordinates from the Wikipedia article; not checked against an investigation report.
From the Wikipedia article
On Wednesday, 27 April 1960, at Sverdlovsk airport, an Aeroflot Il-18A crashed during landing, resulting in the death of one person.
Crash
The aircraft was performing a training flight under the control of instructor pilot V. D. Lobanov. According to the training assignment, approaches were to be made using the OSP and SP-50 systems under the hood, that is, solely by instruments. The check pilot was the acting commander of the 120th Aviation Detachment, L. M. Ulanova. The crew also included navigator A. V. Zagorsky, flight engineer I. I. Kuznetsov and radio operator I. M. Kormin. The sky at that time was covered with cumulonimbus clouds with a base of 250 metres, visibility was 6 kilometres and a moderate (7 m/s) northerly wind was blowing.
The crew successfully performed four approaches with two landings. On the fifth approach, on a landing heading of 76°, the crew passed the outer and inner markers in accordance with the pattern, and on approaching the inner marker, when the height was 100 metres, check pilot Ulanova gave the command to open the hood. Also, on pilot Lobanov's command, the flaps were extended to the landing position (to 40°). At a height of 70—80 metres, with an indicated airspeed of 260 km/h and the engine control levers set to 30°, the Il-18 passed the inner marker and approached the runway. But at 30 metres above the ground the aircraft suddenly and unexpectedly increased its angle of descent and then struck the concrete of the runway with its nose landing gear. After the impact the Il-18 bounced off the concrete, but after rising 4—5 metres and flying 100 metres, it again struck the runway with its nose gear, destroying the brakes on it. Then the aircraft rose again, this time by 8—10 metres, after which it struck the runway for the third time. The landing gear legs broke and the airliner slid along the concrete “on its belly”, its running propellers catching on the runway. The Il-18 swung to the right and ran off the runway at a right angle.
The airliner crashed at 21:39 local time. A fire broke out in which almost the entire aircraft and the engines burned. Flight engineer Kuznetsov was killed; the others escaped with bruises, burns and minor wounds.
Investigation and cause
Causes
Initially the conclusion was issued that the crash occurred because of an error in piloting technique made by pilot Lobanov during the approach in night conditions. In the commission's opinion, he brought the aircraft to the runway at low height and high speed and belatedly put it into the landing attitude, and then the crew began to take incorrect actions to correct the errors made. Among the contributing causes were named the setting, in the two previous landings, of the engine control levers of engines No. 2 and 3 (inner) to zero before touchdown, that is, the landings were made on two engines, and also the loading of the rear baggage hold with ballast weighing 600 kilograms instead of the prescribed 1000, which led to the maximum permissible forward centre of gravity. The conclusions also noted Ulanova's passive behaviour, as well as Lobanov's low flying hours on the Il-18, with long breaks at that, and his early admission to work as an instructor.
The commission ignored the remarks of the crew members that icing had been observed in the clouds and that excessive control forces had arisen when recovering the aircraft from a steep descent. But 8 months later, on 26 December, an Il-18A that was also performing a training flight crashed near Ulyanovsk. From the review of both crashes it was found that the cause had in fact been a design deficiency of the aircraft — a small elevator margin — as well as an error in the flight manual regarding the permitted flap extension angle. In the event of icing of the stabiliser, when the flaps were extended to an angle of 40°, flow separation occurred on the stabiliser, and the elevator margin was insufficient to recover from the dive.
Translated into English with AI assistance from the Russian Wikipedia article “Катастрофа Ил-18 в Свердловске (1960)” (revision 150406328, 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-18 в Свердловске (1960)
- Translation
- Into English with AI assistance; names of linked operators and aircraft types from Wikidata. It may contain errors.
- Revision
- 150406328 · 2025-12-02 · retrieved 2026-09-19
- Wikidata
- Q16662452
- 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-18 в Свердловске (1960)" (page 4495695, revision 150406328), translated into English with AI assistance
- Date
- Wikipedia infobox: date
- Place and country
- Wikipedia infobox: site
- Map position
- Wikipedia article 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 is an airline according to Wikidata
- 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.