An-26 crash in Rostov-on-Don

The An-26 crash in Aksay was an aviation accident that occurred on the night of Thursday, 23 December 1982 near Rostov-on-Don Airport in the town of Aksay. An An-26 cargo aircraft of the Krasnovodsk Joint Aviation Squadron of Aeroflot was operating a training flight on the Sukhumi — Rostov-on-Don — Krasnovodsk route, but immediately after takeoff from Rostov-on-Don Airport in adverse weather conditions (fog and a strong crosswind in the darkness of night) the airliner deviated from its course, after which it entered a descent. The crew, seeing the dangerous proximity to the ground, tried to stop the descent, but as a result, 1 minute and 40 seconds after takeoff, the airliner clipped the trees of a shelterbelt, crashed onto the ground, ploughed along it and slammed into a second shelterbelt 5 km from Rostov-on-Don Airport, being completely destroyed. All 16 people on board the aircraft were killed — 12 passengers and 4 crew members.

Crash

At 20:42:42 the An-26 took off from the runway and began to climb at a speed of 283 km/h. However, at a height of 70 metres it began gradually drifting off course due to the crosswind, but the crew did not notice this, since the flight was taking place in dense fog. When at 20:43:20 the aircraft was passing a height of 170 metres at a speed of 320 km/h, the captain gave the order to retract the flaps, which was done in two stages. Because of the fog the crew could not see ground references and did not notice that the overloaded and poorly trimmed airliner had begun to sink, and could not counter it in time. Rapidly losing height, the An-26 in 10 seconds accelerated to a forward speed of 370 km/h and a vertical speed of 18 m/s.

Only at a height of 120 metres did the pilots realise the situation and pull the control columns back. However, due to the enormous load, in 4 seconds the rate of descent had only decreased to 5—7 m/s when, at a height of 38 metres relative to aerodrome level, the aircraft, nose raised and with its engines running at takeoff power, struck the trees of a shelterbelt at a speed of 405 km/h, as a result of which it lost the right part of its wing. Beginning to enter a right bank, the airliner 75 metres further on struck the ground with its right engine and tail, skidded along it for another 75 metres, and then, 5 kilometres from the runway and 1180 metres to the left of its centreline, slammed into the trees of a second shelterbelt and was completely destroyed. All 16 people on board were killed. The entire flight lasted a minute and 40 seconds.

Vyacheslav Ivanovich Alekseyenko

Viktor Vasilyevich Andreyev

Nikolai Vasilyevich Babkin

Ravil Daniyalovich Bigeyev

Nikolai Nikolayevich Getmanov

Marat Gayazovich Gimranov

Mikhail Yegorovich Glekov

Ivan Anatolyevich Dementyev

Mldaman Yuldashevich Ishmetov

Vladimir Aleksandrovich Kaplin

Sergei Akimovich Levada

Andrei Valentinovich Sukhomlinov

Viktor Anatolyevich Tkachenko

Vladislav Alekseyevich Ustyugov

Gennady Lukich Sharov