Il-18 crash near Domodedovo (1967)

The Il-18 crash near Domodedovo (1967) was an aviation accident that occurred in the early morning of Thursday, 6 April 1967 near Domodedovo Airport. An Il-18V airliner of the 235th Government Aviation Squadron of the airline Aeroflot was operating a ferry flight on the Domodedovo — Vnukovo route, but 2 minutes after takeoff from Domodedovo Airport the airliner crashed into a field between the villages of Kutuzovo and Provody and was completely destroyed. All 8 crew members on board were killed.

The official cause of the crash was never determined.

Crash

The aircraft had been operating a passenger flight from Krasnoyarsk to Moscow and landed at Domodedovo Airport during the night at 02:22. The passengers left the aircraft, and the crew was then to ferry it to its home airport — Vnukovo. Isolated rain clouds hung in the sky with a base of 180—240 metres, and visibility was 8 kilometres. At 03:26:26 the airliner with 8 crew members took off from the runway of Moscow Domodedovo Airport on a magnetic heading of 137°; the flight was operated by Il-18V registration USSR-75563, flying from Domodedovo to Vnukovo, and after passing the inner marker (BPRM) at a height of 300 metres it began the first turn to leave the airport's airspace.

While making the turn, at 03:27:47 the captain began reporting the takeoff when contact was cut off mid-word. At 03:28:06 the airliner, flying on a magnetic heading of 262°, struck a field at high speed 3 kilometres from the runway threshold and 2 kilometres to the right of its centreline, bounced into the air, flew a short distance and struck the ground again, was completely destroyed and burned. The wreckage was scattered over a distance of 650 metres. The trainee flight engineer Silkin was found alive at the crash site, but 12 days later, on 18 April, he died in hospital of his injuries. Thus all 8 people on board were killed in the crash.