Mi-2 crash in Saint Petersburg
Rzhevka Mil Mi-2 · Low-altitude flight, pilot error
From Rzhevka, Saint Petersburg to Rzhevka, Saint Petersburg
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
- Charter & commuter
Mil Mi-2
- Aircraft type
- Mil MI-2
- Category
- Helicopter · 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
- RA-20973
- Operator
- Rzhevka
- Onboard fatalities
- 6
- Route
- From Rzhevka, Saint PetersburgTo Rzhevka, Saint Petersburg
Cause areas
- Personnel issues › Action/decision
- Environmental issues › Conditions/weather/phenomena
- Personnel issues › Experience/knowledge
- Organizational issues › Support/oversight/monitoring
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
The Mi-2 crash in Saint Petersburg was an air crash that occurred on 5 April 1992 in the Gulf of Finland in the Saint Petersburg area, involving a Mi-2 helicopter of the Leningrad Civil Aviation Association ("Rzhevka"), which killed 6 people.
Crash
The Mi-2 helicopter with tail number RA-20973 (serial number 539646036, built in 1986), flown by the commander (PIC) Yu. F. Nigmatulin, was performing a sightseeing flight on the route Rzhevka — Vasilyevsky Island — Petrodvorets — Rzhevka under a flight assignment that had not been used previously but had expired, while the weather in the city was below the meteorological minimum for visual flights, and there was fog over the gulf. The flight plan did not provide for landings on the route, but Nigmatulin made an unplanned landing and took on board five passengers, including four foreigners — staff of a European Union humanitarian mission who were working in Saint Petersburg on the distribution of food aid.
On the section from Vasilyevsky Island to Petrodvorets the flight was conducted at extremely low altitude over the water surface of the gulf and in breaks in the clouds. Then, 2 kilometres from Vasilyevsky Island, the helicopter crashed into the water at full speed and sank at a depth of 2.5 metres. All 6 people on board were killed: two passengers from the impact, the pilot and three passengers from drowning.
Investigation and cause
Causes
The cause of the accident was the collision of the helicopter with the water surface while flying at extremely low altitude in conditions that precluded piloting under VFR, as a result of the PIC's unjustified decision to continue the flight in conditions of local fog over the water surface and the deliberate descent of the helicopter in order to switch to visual flight, in combination with the following factors:
the PIC's failure to observe the conditions set out in NPP GA-85 paragraph 5.5.12.1 for making the decision to depart under VFR and special VFR (OPVP);
violation of the requirements of NPP GA-85 paragraph 5.3.13 regarding descent below the instrument safe altitude in order to switch to visual flight when the aircraft enters conditions below the established minimum;
falsification in the training of the PIC for performing flights in adverse weather conditions (SMU) and by types of work;
low quality of meteorological support for flights in the application of aviation to the national economy (PANKh) at Rzhevka airport;
the KRS and KLS (commanding and flight staff) allow serious violations and omissions in complying with the documents governing the organisation and support of helicopter flights for PANKh at the Rzhevka airport enterprise.
Translated into English with AI assistance from the Russian Wikipedia article “Катастрофа Ми-2 в Санкт-Петербурге” (revision 150406606, 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 Ми-2 в Санкт-Петербурге
- Translation
- Into English with AI assistance; names of linked operators and aircraft types from Wikidata. It may contain errors.
- Revision
- 150406606 · 2025-12-02 · retrieved 2026-09-19
- Wikidata
- Q16662509
- 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 Ми-2 в Санкт-Петербурге" (page 4593467, revision 150406606), 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
- Reviewed correction (2026-09-26): A helicopter sightseeing flight with passengers: a tour flight, counted as air taxi and commuter. The article: "was performing a sightseeing flight on the route Rzhevka — Vasilyevsky Island — Petrodvorets — Rzhevka"
- 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.