An-2 crash near Rzhevka
2nd Leningrad Combined Aviation Detachment, Leningrad Civil Aviation Directorate Antonov An-2 · Loss of engine power (throttle lever creeping back, or engine failure)
From Rzhevka to Rzhevka
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
- 4 · all aircraft and ground
- Ground fatalities
- Unknown
- Occupants
- Unknown
- Survivors
- 1
- 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
Antonov An-2
- Aircraft type
- Antonov AN-2
- 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-70218
- Onboard fatalities
- 4
- Route
- From RzhevkaTo Rzhevka
Cause areas
- Aircraft › Aircraft power plant
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
The An-2 crash near Rzhevka was an aviation accident involving an An-2R passenger aircraft of the 2nd Leningrad (Rzhevka) Combined Aviation Detachment that occurred on Wednesday 29 May 1985 in Leningrad Oblast near Rzhevka Airport, in which 4 of the 5 people on board were killed.
Crash
An-2R tail number 70218 was to perform a training flight on the route Rzhevka — Luban — Izvara — Ostrogovitsy — Vokhonovo — Rzhevka, and it was flown by a crew of two pilots from the same Rzhevka aviation detachment. In violation of the Flight Operations Manual (NPP GA-78), this flight was combined with a check flight of the aircraft after the installation of spraying equipment, for which water (530 litres) had been poured into the chemical tank. Three passengers were also on board: engineer Yashnik sat in the cockpit, while squadron commander Suvorin and his deputy Pavlov sat in the front part of the cabin. The aircraft's centre of gravity was within limits, but the takeoff weight was exceeded by 217 kilograms.
The weather conditions were good when at 10:20 the An-2, after a takeoff run of 300—400 metres at a speed of 110 km/h, took off from the runway on a magnetic heading of 237°; the crew did not report the takeoff. The aircraft climbed slowly and after about a kilometre (by the end of the runway) had risen to 15—20 metres, while its speed at that moment was about 112 km/h. The An-2 passed the inner non-directional beacon at a height of 30—35 metres at a speed of 125 km/h, when the pilots began to dump the water while making a slow turn towards an emergency landing site located 3 kilometres south-west (azimuth 220°) of the aerodrome reference point. But during the turn the aircraft began to lose height and at 10:23:14, 20—25 metres above the ground, its landing gear legs clipped the tops of pine trees, and 4 seconds later, having flown 260 metres on a heading of 50°, it struck the trees with the left part of the wing, spun round in the air, crashed to the ground and caught fire.
Only the deputy squadron commander Pavlov survived the crash; all the other four people on board were killed. The dead airmen were later buried in a common grave at the Cemetery in Memory of the Victims of 9 January.
Investigation and cause
Causes
Since light aviation aircraft, to which the An-2 belonged, were not equipped with flight recorders, it was impossible to carry out an objective analysis of the moment the emergency arose and how it developed. According to the commission's findings, the probable cause of the crash was a loss of engine power during the acceleration along the runway and also during the climb. As a result, a situation quite quickly arose in which the excess power became equal to zero and the aircraft began to descend, which even dumping the water could no longer prevent. The cause of the loss of engine power, in the commission's opinion, may have been either an engine failure or the throttle lever creeping back from the takeoff position, as it may not have been locked. As for the excess takeoff weight, according to the findings, it was not the cause of the crash.
Translated into English with AI assistance from the Russian Wikipedia article “Катастрофа Ан-2 под Ржевкой” (revision 154969760, 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 Ан-2 под Ржевкой
- Article
- Катастрофа Ан-2 под Ржевкой
- Translation
- Into English with AI assistance; names of linked operators and aircraft types from Wikidata. It may contain errors.
- Revision
- 154969760 · 2026-09-11 · retrieved 2026-09-19
- Wikidata
- Q16662408
- 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 Ан-2 под Ржевкой" (page 4499668, revision 154969760), 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
- Reviewed correction (2026-09-26): A training flight by a crew of the Leningrad Civil Aviation Directorate's Rzhevka detachment (Aeroflot): an airline's own training flight, not a spraying job. The article: "An-2R tail number 70218 was to perform a training flight on the route Rzhevka — Luban — Izvara — Ostrogovitsy — Vokhonovo — Rzhevka"
- 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.