An-2 crash in Terney
Aeroflot (Far Eastern Civil Aviation Directorate, Vladivostok Joint Aviation Detachment) Antonov An-2 · Centre of gravity violation
From Terney to Kuznetsovo
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
- 10 · all aircraft and ground
- Ground fatalities
- Unknown
- Occupants
- Unknown
- Survivors
- 6
- 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
- 6
- 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
- Airline
Antonov An-2
- Aircraft type
- Antonov AN-2
- Category
- Airplane · 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
- CCCP-05655
- Onboard fatalities
- 10
- Route
- From TerneyTo Kuznetsovo
Cause areas
- Aircraft › Aircraft oper/perf/capability
- Personnel issues › Task performance
- Organizational issues › Support/oversight/monitoring
From the investigation findings the Wikipedia article reports, sorted into the NTSB's cause areas with AI assistance.
Approximate · Estimated position: Terney, near the place the Wikipedia article names. Not the accident site.
From the Wikipedia article
The An-2 crash in Terney was an aviation accident that occurred on Tuesday 18 March 1975 near the settlement of Terney (Primorsky Krai) involving an Aeroflot An-2, in which 10 people were killed.
Crash
The crew was on a temporary assignment at Terney airport, where it was performing non-scheduled flights. On 18 March 1975 the pilots were to fly the route Terney – Amgu – Kuznetsovo. In total there were 14 passengers on board, including two children, 80 kilograms of cargo and 50 kilograms of mail. The crew did not calculate the aircraft's take-off weight, and therefore no centre of gravity calculation was made. The pre-flight preparation was also carried out with violations. As would later be established, the actual take-off weight of the aircraft was 5699 kilograms with a centre of gravity of 33.5 % MAC.
At 10:04 local time the An-2 began its take-off in a north-westerly direction. But when the aircraft had climbed to a height of 5–7 metres, the pilots felt that its nose was beginning to rise steeply (pitching up). An attempt to counter this by pushing the control column "away from themselves" had no effect. Suspecting a shift of the centre of gravity beyond the aft limit, the commander immediately ordered the passengers to move forward, but they did not have time to carry out the order. At a height of 30–35 metres the An-2 had already reached a supercritical angle of attack, as a result of which its forward speed dropped. Having lost lift, the aircraft stalled onto its left wing, then turned through 280–290° (a little more than ¾ of a turn) and at an angle of 35–40° crashed into a potato field and then caught fire, coming to rest almost perpendicular to the runway axis. The resulting fire was extinguished promptly, but the entire fuselage in the area of the cockpit and passenger cabin was completely destroyed. 10 people were killed in the accident: the co-pilot and 9 passengers, including both children. The surviving commander and 5 passengers received various injuries.
Investigation and cause
Investigation
As the commission established, the aircraft was overloaded by 449 kilograms, and the centre of gravity was already beyond the aft limit. The crew did not calculate these parameters, and the traffic service controller in turn did not check the pilots' actions and signed the blank flight assignment and navigation log. Moreover, in the log the weight of the empty aircraft was given as 3275 kilograms, whereas in fact it was 3412 kilograms. Also, one of the passengers had not been registered. This was a former employee of Maksimovka airport, whom commander Tregub had taken on board. The boarding attendant was against boarding the extra passenger and even reported the situation to the airport manager, but the airport manager did not remove this passenger. From the testimony of the surviving passengers it was established that two passengers had been placed on a crate at the entrance to the cockpit. When the aircraft left the ground, one of the passengers stood up and moved to the rear of the cabin, as a result of which the aircraft began to lower its tail and raise its nose. Trying to correct the situation, the commander shouted "All passengers forward!", and some of the passengers even unfastened their belts, but at that moment the aircraft was already falling.
Also, when the aircraft's logbook was examined, it was found to contain an entry by repair plant No. 24 on the replacement of the stabiliser with a new one of modified design. With it, the recommended aft centre of gravity limit was 33 % MAC. But examination of the wreckage revealed that the stabiliser had not actually been replaced, and so the aircraft had an unmodified stabiliser of the old design, because of which the aft centre of gravity limit was restricted to 32 % MAC.
Causes
The commission named as the cause of the accident the shift of the aircraft's centre of gravity beyond the permissible limits during take-off, when one of the passengers moved towards the tail section, and also the crew's violation of instructions on loading and centre of gravity of the aircraft during flight preparation. Contributing to the crash were the actions of the airport manager, who did not remove the unregistered passenger, and of the management of the Dalnerechensk Joint Aviation Squadron and the Vladivostok Joint Aviation Detachment, which organised flight operations poorly and did not supervise the actions of crews when they were away from base.
Translated into English with AI assistance from the Russian Wikipedia article “Катастрофа Ан-2 в Тернее” (revision 150406471, 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 Ан-2 в Тернее
- Article
- Катастрофа Ан-2 в Тернее
- Translation
- Into English with AI assistance; names of linked operators and aircraft types from Wikidata. It may contain errors.
- Revision
- 150406471 · 2025-12-02 · retrieved 2026-09-19
- Wikidata
- Q18398565
- 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 Ан-2 в Тернее" (page 5130332, revision 150406471), translated into English with AI assistance
- Date
- Wikipedia infobox: date
- Place and country
- Wikipedia infobox: site
- Map position
- place the Wikipedia infobox site links (Wikidata coordinates)
- 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): An Aeroflot An-2 on non-scheduled flights carrying passengers, cargo and mail: a state airline transport flight. The article: "In total there were 14 passengers on board, including two children, 80 kilograms of cargo and 50 kilograms of mail."
- 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.