Collision of two An-12s over Tula

The collision of two An-12s over Tula was an aviation accident that occurred on 23 October 1972, when two An-12BP aircraft of the Soviet Air Force collided in the sky near Tula, killing 27 people.

Crash

On that day sleet was falling in Tula, and visibility was about 1300 metres, which allowed pilots to be organised to take their proficiency class tests. A training flight with an approach using the OSP system was being performed by an An-12P of the 374th Military Transport Aviation Regiment. It was flown by a crew whose commander was Major V. Semyonov. At the same time an An-12BP of the 8th Military Transport Aviation Regiment from Seshcha (Bryansk Oblast) was approaching the Tula airfield of Klokovo, bringing the regiment's flight personnel to Tula to take the test. The aircraft commander was Colonel V. Shalunov, and his assistant was Senior Lieutenant D. Ye. Pokrovsky. Having contacted the flight director of Klokovo airfield, Shalunov received clearance to descend. Due to an emergency power outage at the command and control post, the surveillance radar stopped working. Nevertheless, flight director Yu. Blinkov allowed Semyonov to take off and fly the circuit.

When Shalunov's crew reported passing the outer marker (DPRM), the flight director decided to bring in the Bryansk aircraft to land first, and then the Tula one. From the crews' reports of passing abeam the outer marker and completing the third turn, it followed that they were closing with a time interval of 1 minute 18 seconds, that is, half of the established 3 minutes. The reason for this was that Shalunov's crew had deviated from the established approach pattern by 6 kilometres to the outside. However, despite the dangerous closing of the aircraft, the flight director, relying only on the crews' reports, took no measures to increase the interval between the aircraft. Because of the inoperative radar the flight director did not know the position of either aircraft when he instructed Shalunov, after completing the 3rd turn, to descend to circuit height. Since the Bryansk An-12 was by that time outside the established pattern, it also made the third turn at an unassigned location. Shalunov then attempted to return to the course, for which he reduced the heading by 10°.

At 17:00 the tail gunner in the aircraft of Semyonov's crew shouted: "Behind us — an aircraft!". In reply the commander said: "Well, that's it!", after which Shalunov's aircraft, which had caught up with them, crashed into them. As a result of the collision both aircraft fell to the ground by a river near the settlement of Berniki and were completely destroyed. All 27 people in both aircraft (6 crew members and 14 passengers in one and 7 crew members in the other) were killed.