ANT-7 crash near Podolsk
Moscow Aviation Plant No. 22 Tupolev ANT-7 · Poor weather conditions, Crew errors, Design defect
From Moscow to Crimea
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
- 8 · all aircraft and ground
- Ground fatalities
- Unknown
- Occupants
- Unknown
- Survivors
- Unknown
- 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
- Unknown
- 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
- Government
Tupolev ANT-7
- Aircraft type
- Tupolev ANT-7
- 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-C
- Operator
- Moscow Aviation Plant No. 22
- Onboard fatalities
- 8
- Route
- From MoscowTo Crimea
Cause areas
- Environmental issues › Conditions/weather/phenomena
- Aircraft › Aircraft systems
From the investigation findings the Wikipedia article reports, sorted into the NTSB's cause areas with AI assistance.
Approximate · Estimated position: Podolsk, near the place the Wikipedia article names. Not the accident site.
From the Wikipedia article
The ANT-7 crash near Podolsk was an aviation accident involving an ANT-7 aircraft that occurred south of Podolsk (Moscow Oblast) on Tuesday 5 September 1933, resulting in the deaths of eight people. The leaders of the aviation industry and civil aviation of the USSR were killed in the crash, so the event attracted wide attention, which subsequently led to a complete reorganisation of air transport in the Soviet Union.
Crash
At the beginning of September an order unexpectedly came to the plant, according to which fuel tanks had to be installed on the aircraft. The ANT-7 was to make a long-distance flight to Crimea and deliver there a group of representatives of the aviation industry and civil aviation, since a new aircraft plant was being opened in Sevastopol.
It is reliably known (from the daughter of A. Z. Goltsman) that he received the order to fly to Crimea, which was brought by a military courier, personally from Stalin. Whether or not the crash was staged is unknown.
In total there were 2 crew members and 6 passengers on board:
I. M. Dorfman — chief pilot of Glavaviaprom
N. E. Plotnikov — flight engineer
P. I. Baranov — deputy People's Commissar of Heavy Industry, head of the Main Directorate of the Aviation Industry
B.M. Baranova — his wife (she persuaded her husband to take her to Crimea, where their children were on holiday)
A. Z. Goltsman — head of the Main Directorate of the Civil Air Fleet
A. V. Petrov (Sergeyev) — deputy head of the Main Directorate of the Civil Air Fleet
S. P. Gorbunov — director of Aviation Plant No. 22
V. A. Zarzar — member of the Presidium of Gosplan of the USSR
The weather conditions were poor, but Baranov insisted on departure. At 9 in the morning the ANT-7 departed from Moscow. However, 20 minutes later in the area of Podolsk, the airliner, flying at low altitude, caught the wire of an amateur radio antenna strung on tall poles with its landing gear struts. Having lost speed, the aircraft then struck the top of a tall white willow with the aileron of its left wing, and the impact caused the left wing panel to separate. Having lost control, the ANT-7 struck the ground and was completely destroyed. All 8 people on board were killed.
On 5 September at 9 hrs 20 min, south of Podolsk, near Lopasnya station, as a result of an aircraft accident the following were killed: deputy People's Commissar of Heavy Industry, head of the Main Directorate of the Aviation Industry Comrade Pyotr Ionovich Baranov, head of the Main Directorate of the Civil Air Fleet Comrade A. Z. Goltsman, director of Plant N22 Comrade S. P. Gorbunov, deputy head of the Main Directorate of the Civil Air Fleet Comrade A. V. Petrov, member of the Presidium of Gosplan of the USSR Comrade V. A. Zarzar, chief pilot Comrade I. M. Dorfman, flight engineer N. E. Plotnikov and Comrade B. M. Baranova. The Government granted personal pensions to the families of the deceased.
Investigation and cause
Causes
The crash almost completely repeated the crash near Naro-Fominsk that had occurred two years earlier — an aircraft flying in fog and at a dangerously low altitude struck trees, after which it fell to the ground. Various reasons were given for why the pilot Dorfman was flying at low altitude. Some believed that the pilot was in fact not sufficiently experienced and did not deserve to be working as chief pilot. Others believed that the aircraft was overloaded, because of which it did not manage to gain altitude. The commission investigating the occurrence concluded that, in low cloud conditions and without equipment (instruments and radio apparatus) for blind flying, the pilot was forced to fly the airliner at such a low altitude so as not to lose sight of the ground, which led to the collision with obstacles.
Translated into English with AI assistance from the Russian Wikipedia article “Катастрофа АНТ-7 под Подольском” (revision 150406234, 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 АНТ-7 под Подольском
- Translation
- Into English with AI assistance; names of linked operators and aircraft types from Wikidata. It may contain errors.
- Revision
- 150406234 · 2025-12-02 · retrieved 2026-09-19
- Wikidata
- Q18398549
- 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 АНТ-7 под Подольском" (page 5172620, revision 150406234), 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): A state aircraft plant's ANT-7, flown by the chief pilot of the state aviation-industry directorate, carrying senior state officials to Crimea: official state transport, not an airline or military flight. The article: "The ANT-7 was to make a long-distance flight to Crimea and deliver there a group of representatives of the aviation industry and civil aviation"
- 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.