Il-14 crash near Surami

The Il-14 crash near Surami was an aviation accident that occurred on Saturday 28 November 1964 on the Surami Range in the area of Surami involving an Aeroflot Il-14 aircraft (according to other data, an Il-14M), in which 7 people were killed.

Crash

The aircraft was operating passenger flight G-51 from Tbilisi to Krasnodar with a first intermediate stop in Kutaisi. According to the weather forecast issued, turbulence was expected along the route, with stratocumulus and cumulonimbus cloud of 0-3 oktas, up to 6—9 oktas in the area of the Surami Range, at a height of 600—1000 metres, and the Surami Pass was expected to be closed from the west. At 06:55, with 4 crew members and 11 passengers on board, the Il-14 departed from Tbilisi Airport and after climbing took up its planned flight level of 2700 metres. At 07:10 the aircraft reported passing the Mukhrani NDB, and at 07:21 passing the Ali NDB, while flying in cloud. The controller in Tbilisi did not check this point by dead reckoning, but instead instructed the crew to switch to the controller in Kutaisi. Having switched to Kutaisi, the crew received an instruction to descend to an altitude of 2100 metres. Then permission was given to descend to 1500 metres, and soon to 1200 metres. Next, permission was given to fly the approach pattern on a heading of 270°. In the last radio exchange the crew was instructed to make the fourth turn, after which they no longer made contact and did not respond to calls.

The crew had made a mistake already when reporting to the controller in Tbilisi that they had passed Ali. In fact there was continuous low cloud along the route, the pass was covered by cloud and a strong headwind was blowing, because of which the aircraft, at the moment of switching to Kutaisi, was still 37 kilometres from Ali, that is, within the area of responsibility of the Tbilisi centre. The navigator who was part of the crew never verified the exact position of the aircraft. The Kutaisi controller did not see aircraft 41883 on his radar, but nevertheless cleared it to descend. Interference was observed on the radio link, which happens when an aircraft is too far from the airport. However, this did not alert the air traffic controllers, so the crew was cleared to descend to 1500 metres and then to 1200 metres. When the radar operator reported observing a return at a distance of 48 kilometres, it was in fact another Il-14 — aircraft 03536, but the controller decided that this was aircraft 41883. At 07:36 aircraft 03536 reported passing the outer marker, but the controller decided that this report had also come from aircraft 41883, and therefore cleared it to descend and switch to the landing controller. At that moment the Il-14 was flying at an altitude of 1400 metres over the Surami Range when the crew, without verifying their position, began flying the approach pattern. Only when the flight director mistook a random blip on the radar screen for Flight 51 and told the crew that they were approaching the third turn did those aboard aircraft 41883 begin to doubt that this was really so. The crew then requested their position several times, but the controller and the flight director did not provide it, instead telling the crew not to argue but to make the fourth turn. The fourth turn was made at an altitude of 1000 metres in severe turbulence and snowfall, with visibility of about 50 metres. 2—3 minutes after beginning the turn, the Il-14 clipped the treetops on the eastern slope of the range, after which it lost speed and struck the slope 10 kilometres from Ali. The impact tore the fuselage into two parts, and the cockpit was destroyed. There was no fire.

The crash site was found the following day. The radio operator Tonkonogov and 7 passengers survived, all of them seriously injured and frostbitten. The other 3 crew members and 4 passengers, 7 people in total, were killed.