Mi-8 and An-12 collision at Naryan-Mar airport

The collision at Naryan-Mar airport was an aviation accident that occurred on Thursday 11 December 1997 on the runway of Naryan-Mar airport. A Russian Air Force An-12BP cargo aircraft was operating a commercial flight on the route Yermolino–Naryan-Mar with a cargo of goods for Naryan-Mar businessmen, but after landing at Naryan-Mar airport in poor visibility it collided with an Mi-8TV helicopter of the local Joint Aviation Detachment, which had completed a medical flight on the route Nizhnyaya Pesha–Volokovaya–Naryan-Mar and had not managed to vacate the runway. 8 people were killed and 7 more received injuries of varying severity.

The causes of the crash were errors by the An-12 crew and uncoordinated actions of the Naryan-Mar airport air traffic control service (the Mi-8 was controlled by a civil air traffic controller, and the An-12 by a military controller).

Timeline of events

On 11 December 1997, Mi-8TV helicopter RA-24247, with 3 crew members and 1 accompanying doctor, departed on a medical flight to evacuate patients from the village of Nizhnyaya Pesha and the hamlet of Volokovaya. Having taken on board 7 passengers, at about 13:00 the helicopter set course for Naryan-Mar. At 16:57 the helicopter landed on the runway of Naryan-Mar airport and, having turned through 180°, was taxiing to vacate the runway. Air traffic control of the helicopter was carried out by controllers of the civil sector.

At the same time, An-12BP aircraft RA-12105, which was completing a commercial flight from Yermolino, was landing on the runway with a landing heading of 63°; on board were 9 people — 7 crew members and 2 cargo escorts.

The approach was made using the ILS in meteorological conditions below the PIC's minimum of 150x1500 metres. At 16:36 the An-12 crew received information about deteriorating weather, and at 16:46 received a storm warning for visibility at the airport of 1000 metres. Air traffic control of the aircraft was carried out by controllers of the civil and military sectors. At 16:54 the circuit controller transferred the crew of RA-12105 to the military sector's landing zone controller. At 16:55 the An-12 crew contacted the landing zone controller at a distance of 15 kilometres from the runway. The landing zone controller informed the crew of weather below minimums and instructed them to make a pass over the runway at circuit altitude to check the visibility. To the crew's request for clearance to approach and land, the landing zone controller instructed them to fly a circuit.

At a distance of 8 kilometres, in the area of the glide path entry point, the An-12 crew reported having the runway steadily in sight. The landing zone controller cleared descent to the inner marker and then instructed them to fly level; the An-12 crew did not report being ready to land.

No landing clearance was given to the crew of RA-12105. Believing that the air traffic controller's instruction to fly level had been given because of poor visibility (and the An-12 crew had already established visual contact with the runway), RA-12105 landed instead of making a pass over the airport, but RA-24247 had not yet vacated the runway at that moment.

At 16:59, during the flare, the An-12 struck the taxiing Mi-8 helicopter about 5 metres from taxiway No. 4 (the Mi-8 was spotted by the An-12 crew at the last moment on approaching the runway after the landing lights were switched on, and the Mi-8 itself needed only 10 more seconds to leave the runway). At high speed the An-12 struck the Mi-8's fuselage with its right wing; the blow fell on its central part (the passenger cabin and fuel tank). An explosion followed, which engulfed the entire helicopter in fire, and all 7 passengers and the accompanying doctor in it were killed, while the cockpit was torn off and thrown aside by the blast wave, which saved the lives of all three crew members. The Mi-8's main rotor blades ripped open the An-12. The aircraft, with its nose section cut open, its right wing badly damaged and its vertical tail fin sheared off, slid a short distance along the runway and stopped, while the helicopter was completely destroyed.

The crash killed 8 people on board the Mi-8 (all 7 passengers and the accompanying doctor); 7 people were injured — 4 people on board the An-12 (3 crew members — the PIC, the navigator and the flight engineer (traumatic amputation of the legs) — and 1 escort) and 3 crew members of the Mi-8 (the PIC, the co-pilot and the flight mechanic). The Mi-8 co-pilot, Bronislav Vanyukov, died of a heart attack less than a year later.

The Mi-8 was completely destroyed and burned out, while the An-12, which was beyond repair, was written off and in 2001 cut up for scrap.