An-22 crash near Bryansk

The An-22 crash near Bryansk was an aviation accident that occurred on Tuesday 21 December 1976 in Bryansk Oblast involving a Soviet Air Force An-22 "Antei", killing 8 people.

Crash

The aircraft was performing an experimental flight during which vibration stresses in the control rods were being measured. The flight was performed at an altitude of 4000 metres following the "Big Box" pattern (a circuit flight). Three turns had already been completed when commander Yefremov, at a speed of 380 km/h, deflected the rudder to the right. But he did so not by 17°, as specified in the task, but by 23°, while the ailerons remained in the neutral position. This manoeuvre caused the "Antei" to enter a steep sideslip with descent. To recover from the sideslip, the pilot should have pushed the control column "away from himself" and then levelled the machine out of the bank, and then, on reaching the required speed, brought the machine into level flight. But instead Yefremov mistakenly pulled the control column sharply "towards himself", which in this situation caused the aircraft to reach supercritical angles of attack, entering a stall. The "Antei" began to dive and lost 3400 metres of height before it was brought into level flight at a height of 500–600 metres. However, the commander pulled out of the dive so sharply that a load factor of 4 g arose, which proved to be above the permissible limit, and as a result the right wing began to break up. Breaking up in the air, the aircraft struck the ground in the Dubrovka area and exploded, and all eight people on board were killed.