Il-14 crash near Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk (1976)

The 1976 Il-14 crash near Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk was an aviation accident that occurred on the afternoon of Saturday 18 December 1976 in the vicinity of Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk. An Il-14RR aircraft of the Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk Combined Aviation Detachment of the Aeroflot enterprise was operating a reconnaissance flight on the route Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky — Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk, but while on approach to land at Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk's Khomutovo Airport in whiteout conditions the aircraft crashed into Mount Ostraya and was completely destroyed. Of the 11 people on board — 5 passengers and 6 crew members — 9 people were killed and two survived with serious injuries.

Crash

On 18 December 1976, at 08:14 local time (00:14 Moscow time), the aircraft with 5 passengers and 6 crew members departed from Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky's Khalaktyrka Airport; the flight was operated by Il-14RR tail number USSR-61752, and the aircraft was to perform, at the request of the Sakhalin Hydrometeorological Service Directorate, an ice reconnaissance flight. According to the flight plan, the aircraft, having departed from Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, was to fly along the Kuril Islands and then land in Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk.

The crew completed the task and was flying over the village of Okhotskoye when the controller transmitted the conditions for landing on a magnetic heading of 190°, as well as information on the weather in the area of Khomutovo Airport (Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk) — continuous stratocumulus cloud at a height of 300—500 metres with tops at 7—8 kilometres, snow, light blowing snow, visibility 1—2 kilometres, south-easterly wind (140-160°) gusting to 15 m/s, hills in the aerodrome area obscured. The crew then carried out the pre-landing preparation and calculated the safe altitude at which the flight under VFR was to be performed. At 16:50 the crew reported passing Lake Tunaycha at a height of 200 metres, and also requested permission to climb to a height of 600 metres and under VFR. In reply, at 16:51:20 the area control (RDP) air traffic controller gave this permission, and the crew began to climb. At 16:51:45 the controller instructed it to climb to a height of 900 metres.

Passing a height of 600 metres, at 16:51:47 the crew switched to communication with the approach controller and reported reaching a height of 600 metres visually, to which at 16:51:53 the approach controller again gave the command to climb to a height of 900 metres and also to join the circuit towards the second turn for an approach on a heading of 190°. At 16:53:32 the controller instructed the crew to take up a height of 850 metres because the cloud had descended to 920 metres. 17 seconds later the Il-14 reported reaching the specified height. Next the RDP controller contacted aircraft 61752 and, for monitoring purposes, asked the crew about the flight conditions, to which at 16:54:53 it transmitted: "Siyu 752 entered cloud". After this the aircraft made no further contact and did not respond to calls.

At 16:56 (08:56 Moscow time) the Il-14, flying in a snow squall, struck a mountainside covered with deep snow with its right wing surface. From the impact the right part of the wing together with the engines was torn from the fuselage, after which the fuselage itself fell, sliding, onto the snow. Having ploughed into the snow, the left part of the wing with its engine broke off, and the fuselage was torn into two parts (at frame 23), after which the tail section swung round through 180°, while the front section overturned and was completely destroyed. Five crew members (the commander, the check pilot, the navigator, the flight engineer and the radio operator) and three passengers (two hydrologists and a correspondent of Central Television) were killed in the crash. Because of the heavy snowfall during those days, the rescue services could not find the aircraft. On 20 December the co-pilot also died of his injuries. Only on 21 December at 14 hours was the wrecked airliner found 12.5 kilometres east (azimuth 80°) of the Khomutovo aerodrome reference point on the southern slope of Mount Ostraya at an altitude of 910 metres. By that time only two passengers remained alive — staff members of the Sakhalin Complex Research Institute — herpetologist A. M. Basarukin and zoologist V. G. Voronov.