An-24 crash in Sukhumi

The An-24 crash near Sukhumi was an aviation accident that occurred on 8 July 1977 near Sukhumi, involving an An-24RV aircraft of the Kirovograd Flight School, in which 6 people were killed.

Crash

It was operating a training flight on the Kirovograd—Sukhumi—Kirovograd route with exercises in the area of Sukhumi Airport; however, the latter was busy with passenger flights, so no exercises were carried out in its area and the crew began preparing for the flight to Kirovograd. At that time the sky was overcast with cumulonimbus clouds with a base of 330 metres, light haze, a fresh westerly wind, visibility 7 kilometres, and a thunderstorm to the east. It was also forecast that within an hour the thunderstorm would reach the airport, while the weather radar at the aerodrome was not working. When the An-24 was at the line-up position (at the start of the runway) for takeoff on a magnetic heading of 297°, the controller transmitted: "397, take a look with your own equipment, the weather radar is not working, your decision?". In reply the instructor captain reported: "Fine, it's enough for us to take off, we can turn away there". In view of this the controller gave takeoff clearance, and at 21:38 (20:38 Moscow time) the aircraft departed from the airport and began climbing with a vertical speed of 5 m/s.

During the climb the instructor captain was assessing the weather situation using the onboard radar. At a height of 120—130 metres the speed was 250 km/h when the crew began retracting the flaps. The vertical speed decreased, although the forward speed increased. 6 seconds later the aircraft began descending with a vertical speed of up to 10 m/s. Realising that they were falling into the sea, trainee pilot Meshkov, who was sitting in the right seat (the other trainee pilots were sitting in the cabin), 10 seconds later began pulling the control column back, trying to correct the situation. But 5 seconds later the An-24, at a speed of 370 km/h in flight configuration, struck the water flat 690 metres from the shore and on an azimuth of 297° from the aerodrome reference point (practically on the extension of the runway centreline). Owing to the 1.85g load on impact, the airliner broke up and sank. The wreckage was scattered on the seabed over an area of 150 by 60—70 metres. A motorboat that arrived at the crash site an hour later picked up from the water the seriously injured instructor captain Revenko, who was holding on to a floating piece of the aircraft wreckage. All the other 6 people were killed. Subsequently the main parts of the airliner, its components and units, as well as 5 of the 6 bodies of the dead, were found and raised to the surface.