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Il-14 crash near Sukhumi

22 Apr 1956 · Black Sea, near the coast of Sukhumi (Abkhaz ASSR, Georgian SSR, USSR)

"Aeroflot" (Moscow Transport Aviation Directorate of the GVF, 65th Air Detachment) Ilyushin Il-14 · Not determined

From Vnukovo, Moscow to Tbilisi

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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
6 · all aircraft and ground
Ground fatalities
Unknown
Occupants
Unknown
Survivors
Unknown
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-14

Flight
227
Aircraft type
Ilyushin IL-14
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-L1718
Onboard fatalities
6
Route
From Vnukovo, MoscowTo Tbilisi

Cause areas

  • Not determined › Not determined

From the investigation findings the Wikipedia article reports, sorted into the NTSB's cause areas with AI assistance.

Not plotted · Not plotted: the Wikipedia article gives no coordinates, and its site names no town or airport that matches exactly.

From the Wikipedia article

On 22 April 1956 near Sukhumi, an Il-14P of the company Aeroflot crashed shortly after takeoff, killing 6 people.

Crash

Aircraft L1718 was operating a mail flight on the Moscow — Kharkov — Rostov-on-Don — Sukhumi — Kutaisi — Tbilisi route. It was the second commercial flight in the aircraft's history. The crew consisted of the captain (PIC) P. A. Drizhenog, the co-pilot K. G. Kiselyov, the flight engineer Yu. A. Ivanov and the radio operator Ye. M. Alekseyev. Working in the cabin was the stewardess N. F. Berngardt. The cargo carried consisted mainly of mail and metal castings and weighed 2117 kilograms. At the intermediate stop in Sukhumi one passenger ticket was also sold for the flight.

The sky at that time was clear, with scattered stratocumulus clouds at a height of 600 metres, and visibility was more than 10 kilometres. At 20:50 Moscow time the aircraft departed from Sukhumi Airport. But having reached a height of 60 metres, the Il-14, maintaining its heading and with its engines running, fell into the Black Sea 2910 metres from the start of the takeoff and sank at a depth of 15—17 metres. All 6 people on board were killed.

Investigation and cause

Causes

Most of the wreckage and the bodies of the dead were raised to the surface. From examination of the components and units it was concluded that there had been no technical failures. The cause of the crash was never determined; there were not even any tentative conclusions.

Translated into English with AI assistance from the Russian Wikipedia article “Катастрофа Ил-14 под Сухуми” (revision 154267904, 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-14 под Сухуми
Article
Катастрофа Ил-14 под Сухуми
Translation
Into English with AI assistance; names of linked operators and aircraft types from Wikidata. It may contain errors.
Revision
154267904 · 2026-08-06 · retrieved 2026-09-19
Wikidata
Q16662442
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-14 под Сухуми" (page 4516901, revision 154267904), translated into English with AI assistance
Date
Wikipedia infobox: date
Place and country
Wikipedia infobox: site
Map position
none
Aircraft, operator and route
Wikipedia infobox: aircraft type, registration, operator, origin and destination; route airports from the linked airport articles' Wikidata codes (OurAirports)
Operation
airline flight number 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.