Collision of two An-2s over Vologda

The collision of two An-2s over Vologda was an air crash that occurred on 4 January 1968 in the vicinity of Vologda owing to a mid-air collision of two An-2TPs of the Aeroflot enterprise, which killed 16 people.

Crash

That day heavy snow had been falling since the morning, so all flights of the Vologda aviation detachment in the easterly direction were cancelled. Soon the weather improved, in connection with which the flight director at 08:20 Moscow time decided to resume flights on local air routes in the westerly and north-westerly directions. The sky over Vologda at that time was completely covered with rain clouds at a height of 100—200 metres, in which icing was observed; a moderate south-easterly wind was blowing, there was haze, snow was falling, and visibility was 1000—2000 metres. An improvement in the weather was expected after 12 o'clock.

When the decision to begin flights was made, Skorokhodov's crew (aircraft 96226) performed a cargo flight from Vologda to Ustye-Kubinskoye and back. Then at 11:04 it took off from Vologda airport and again headed for Ustye-Kubinskoye, operating a cargo flight carrying 7 barrels of salted herring with a total weight of 1020 kilograms.

At this time Fefilov's crew (aircraft 09667) had already performed a passenger flight from Vologda to Berezhnoye and was now performing the return flight to Vologda. On board the airliner were 12 passengers. At 11:04 Fefilov reported passing Ust-Kubinskoye.

On the section from Ustye-Kubinskoye to Vologda the flight was to follow the route via Vologda — Olarevo — Ustye-Kubinskoye. However, Fefilov decided to straighten the route and deliberately deviated from the established airway. But Skorokhodov also straightened the route and also deviated from the airway. As a result both aircraft were now flying at a height of 200—210 metres towards each other.

When Skorokhodov heard Fefilov's report of passing Ustye-Kubinskoye, he transmitted: "I'm on opposing course, 09667…", to which the SDP (start) controller Kosotukhin replied: "yes, yes, he's going to Ustye-Kubinskoye", and then: "visibility excellent, weather good". Then Skorokhodov informed the controller that he had reached a height of 200 metres and requested permission to work with the MDP, and Kosotukhin gave this permission. But instead of contacting the MDP, Skorokhodov began calling Ustye-Kubinskoye directly. And Fefilov still continued to keep in contact with the SDP, requesting the weather in the east. Both crews were flying on opposing headings at the same height and working on different frequencies (126 and 128 MHz) when they ran into a snow squall, and the visibility fell to 1000 metres.

At 11:14, 23 kilometres north-north-east of Vologda, in snowfall at a height of 200—210 metres, the aircraft crashed into each other at a combined speed of 347 km/h (aircraft 09667 — 174 km/h, aircraft 96226 — 173 km/h). The An-2 of Fefilov's crew struck with its right wing cell the tail unit of the oncoming An-2 of Skorokhodov's crew. Both aircraft lost control and at steep angles of more than 40° crashed into a swamp 220 metres from each other. From the impact the fuselages with the engines were buried to a depth of up to 4 metres, and the total spread of wreckage was 200 by 300 metres. All 16 people on both aircraft were killed.