ANT-27 crash in Sevastopol

The ANT-27 crash in Sevastopol was an aviation accident that occurred on 15 April 1934 in a bay of Sevastopol involving the ANT-27 (prototype of the MDR-4), killing 4 people. Some sources state that the crash occurred on 16 April near Taganrog, where production of MDR-4 aircraft was in fact later established, and that the number killed was from 3 to 5 people.

Crash

On 15 April (according to other sources, 16 April) the ANT-27 was to make another test flight. The pilots often flew heavy German-built Dornier Wal flying boats, which, because of their flat bottom, lifted off the water surface poorly. Therefore, when taking off in such machines, crews used longitudinal rocking, believing that lift-off would be better that way. On the ANT-27 this technique was not needed because of its more V-shaped bottom, but the pilots out of habit used rocking on it too. This aircraft responded somewhat differently from the German flying boats. In order to understand this strange behaviour of the aircraft, the designer Andrei Tupolev was even summoned from Moscow, and he witnessed the subsequent accident.

Tupolev went out ahead in a launch to the lift-off point in order to see the aircraft getting "onto the step" from closer. The aircraft began its take-off when Tupolev saw that the pilots had started to use rocking, so by waving his arms he tried to warn them not to do so. But the crew did not notice this, after which, having accelerated to high speed on the calm water of Kruglaya Bay, the ANT-27 sailed beyond it into the open sea, where there were high waves at that moment. Striking the first wave, the machine bounced upwards, then dropped its nose and crashed into the second wave. The struts of the central power plant could not withstand the impact and buckled, after which the heavy engine fell onto the cabin. Killed in the accident were the head of the KOSOS naval brigade I. I. Pogossky, engineers G. S. Noskov and K. K. Sinelnikov, and co-pilot A. A. Volynsky. Sources differ as to who was piloting the aircraft at that moment. According to some sources, it was the deceased Volynsky. Other sources indicate that T. V. Ryabenko and D. N. Ilyinsky were also on board, and that they were piloting the machine and survived the crash.