Collision over Kresttsy

The collision over Kresttsy was an aviation accident that occurred on Friday 21 January 1977 in the sky over Novgorod Oblast in the area of the settlement of Kresttsy, involving two Soviet Air Force aircraft. 9 people were killed.

Crash

On 21 January 1977 the USSR Ministry of Defence was conducting a night exercise testing the readiness of the Moscow Air Defence Zone. For this purpose (according to some sources, from Pechora) three An-12PPS jamming aircraft from the 117th Electronic Warfare Aviation Regiment (Šiauliai air base) flew to Šiauliai. According to their assigned task, these aircraft were to lay down active and passive jamming. However, these same three aircraft were also training targets, to intercept which two Su-11 fighter-interceptors were scrambled from Khotilovo air base. By moonlight the fighter pilots spotted the first An-12 and carried out a training attack on it, after which the lead fighter, breaking off the attack, flew beneath its tail. But the Su-11 pilots did not know that this was not the only jamming aircraft, but just one of three. While climbing in the darkness, the wingman interceptor, flown by Senior Lieutenant A. G. Bubnov, collided with the second jamming aircraft, whose commander was Senior Lieutenant V. N. Sayapin. The Su-11 struck the left wing of the An-12 in the area between the engines. The impact separated the wing together with both engines, after which both machines crashed to the ground. All 9 people in the two aircraft were killed: 8 in the An-12 and 1 in the Su-11.