UB-3 crash near Krasnodar
Soviet Air Force, 227th Bomber Aviation Regiment Douglas A-20 Havoc · Failure of the fuel line
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
- 2 · 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
- 1
- 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
- Military
Douglas A-20 Havoc
- Aircraft type
- Douglas A-20
- 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
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- 2
- Route
- From not recordedTo not recorded
Cause areas
- Aircraft › Aircraft power plant
- Aircraft › Aircraft systems
From the investigation findings the Wikipedia article reports, sorted into the NTSB's cause areas with AI assistance.
Approximate · Estimated position: Krasnodar, near the place the Wikipedia article names. Not the accident site.
From the Wikipedia article
On Sunday 12 March 1944 near Krasnodar, during a training flight, a UB-3 (a training version of the "Boston" bomber) crashed, as a result of which 2 people were killed.
Crash
On that day the 227th Bomber Aviation Regiment (227 BAP) was conducting training flights at a military aerodrome in the Krasnodar area, in which young pilots were practising formation flying. In addition, the piloting technique of squadron commander Captain P. I. Shepelev, who had previously been ill for two months, was being checked. Shepelev was flying in the crew of the regiment commander Major I. K. Boronin (Hero of the Soviet Union) and the air gunner Senior Sergeant A. N. Bessarabov.
At 15:30 Boronin's crew took off from the aerodrome in the UB-3, followed by the crew of Junior Lieutenant Yefremov, who, having completed the second turn, soon joined Boronin. Practising formation flying, the aircraft made two circuits around the aerodrome as a pair. Then the formation was broken up, after which Yefremov's crew went in to land, while Boronin's crew headed to the aerobatics zone located 3—4 kilometres east of the aerodrome, where aerobatics were performed at an altitude of 700—800 metres. The crew performed a turn below the clouds and then entered them, where it continued manoeuvring.
10 minutes later the UB-3 emerged from the clouds at an altitude of 600—700 metres, by now with its left engine smoking. At an altitude of about 500—600 metres the crew made a turn and settled on a course for the aerodrome. When the aircraft had descended to 100—150 metres, the smoking left engine caught fire. 10—15 metres from the ground the UB-3 turned through 90°, came out of the turn at a height of 5—10 metres, and then crashed into the ground and exploded. Lieutenant V. M. Dichenko, Senior Sergeant P. G. Bulushev and Junior Lieutenant Astyakin, who ran to the crash site, found Boronin lying near the wrecked aircraft, and also pulled Shepelev and Bessarabov from the wreckage. As a result of the crash Boronin and Bessarabov were killed, while Shepelev was seriously injured.
Investigation and cause
Causes
The cause of the crash was stated to be a fire in the left engine. Several similar crashes had occurred previously, when fires broke out on aircraft while still at the front line, as a result of which two crews were even killed. After the deaths of Boronin and Bessarabov this cause was established — owing to vibration from the operation of the engine, the rigid joint of the fuel line cracked, and then the leaking fuel got onto the hot engine and eventually ignited. S. V. Yatskovsky expressed the view in his 1985 article about Boronin that Boronin had deliberately been testing the engine in various flight modes in order to establish the causes of the frequent fires.
Translated into English with AI assistance from the Russian Wikipedia article “Катастрофа УБ-3 под Краснодаром” (revision 150406256, 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 УБ-3 под Краснодаром
- Translation
- Into English with AI assistance; names of linked operators and aircraft types from Wikidata. It may contain errors.
- Revision
- 150406256 · 2025-12-02 · retrieved 2026-09-19
- Wikidata
- Q16662600
- 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 УБ-3 под Краснодаром" (page 4511156, revision 150406256), 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 armed force or military unit 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.