Il-14 crash at Ust-Maya
Aeroflot (Yakut Civil Aviation Directorate, Yakutsk Combined Aviation Detachment) Ilyushin Il-14 · Probably engine failure
From Ust-Maya to Yakutsk
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
- 5 · 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
- Airline
Ilyushin Il-14
- Aircraft type
- Ilyushin IL-14
- 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-61637
- Onboard fatalities
- 5
- Route
- From Ust-MayaTo Yakutsk
Cause areas
- Personnel issues › Action/decision
- Aircraft › Aircraft oper/perf/capability
From the investigation findings the Wikipedia article reports, sorted into the NTSB's cause areas with AI assistance.
Not plotted · Not plotted: the Wikipedia article gives no coordinates, and its site names no town or airport that matches exactly.
From the Wikipedia article
The Il-14 crash at Ust-Maya was an aviation accident involving an Il-14M aircraft that occurred on Wednesday 25 February 1970 near Ust-Maya Airport, in which 5 people were killed.
Crash
The crew was to perform a non-scheduled flight ferrying the empty aircraft from Ust-Maya to Yakutsk. It was a calm clear night, and visibility reached 10 kilometres. At 20:35 the crew acknowledged receiving take-off clearance, but did not report taking off and did not respond to calls. As a result of a search, the airliner was found 1350 metres from the runway threshold and 310 metres to the right of its extended centreline, on a heading opposite to the landing heading. Having barely lifted into the air to a height of 50—100 metres, the Il-14 quickly turned right by 180° with a steep bank. The crew was probably unable to counter this with control deflection, and therefore shut down both engines. Rapidly losing altitude, the aircraft crashed into a forest and was completely destroyed. All 5 people on board were killed.
Investigation and cause
Causes
The commission was unable to establish the true cause of the crash. Most probably, during the take-off the retaining nut of the right propeller cylinder partially unscrewed itself, as a result of which the propeller cylinder shifted forward. This led to a failure of the speed governor, which in turn led to overspeeding of the right engine, with the blades of its propeller going past the blade angles below the minimum. When thrust on the right side dropped sharply, an imbalance of thrust forces arose, which created the yawing moment.
Subsequently, an examination of the aircraft's engines was carried out at the State Research Institute of Civil Aviation (GosNII GA). The commission's conclusions about a presumed engine failure on take-off were not confirmed during the examination.
Order No. 029 of the Ministry of Civil Aviation of 25.05.70 states that after take-off the aircraft commander, instead of the left turn prescribed by the aerodrome flight manual (IPP) at this aerodrome, made the first turn to the right, where the terrain was elevated. At a height of 40-50 m the aircraft collided with trees with its right wing. At the moment the aircraft struck the ground, the landing gear, flaps and landing lights were in the retracted position. The aircraft and engine hardware was serviceable prior to the occurrence.
The main cause of the crash is the execution of the first turn towards elevated terrain at a height below the established one, as a result of violations by the aircraft commander of the requirements of the Il-14 flight operations manual (RLE), the aerodrome flight manual (IPP) at Ust-Maya aerodrome and §322 of the Civil Aviation Flight Operations Manual NPP GA-66.
A contributing circumstance to the crash was that the aircraft's centre of gravity was 9.8 % (clarification required, since earlier in the same report a centre of gravity of 10.8 % was given), that is, it was beyond the permissible forward limit. In a critical situation such a violation significantly complicated piloting. At the same time the crew, in breach of discipline, wrote in the flight assignment that the aircraft's centre of gravity was 13.5 %, that is, within the permissible range. Deceived in this way, the Ust-Maya Airport controller consequently dispatched an aircraft that had an impermissible forward centre of gravity.
Translated into English with AI assistance from the Russian Wikipedia article “Катастрофа Ил-14 в Усть-Мае” (revision 150406421, 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 Ил-14 в Усть-Мае
- Article
- Катастрофа Ил-14 в Усть-Мае
- Translation
- Into English with AI assistance; names of linked operators and aircraft types from Wikidata. It may contain errors.
- Revision
- 150406421 · 2025-12-02 · retrieved 2026-09-19
- Wikidata
- Q18398584
- 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 Ил-14 в Усть-Мае" (page 5173201, revision 150406421), translated into English with AI assistance
- Date
- Wikipedia infobox: date
- Place and country
- Wikipedia infobox: site
- Map position
- none
- 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 directorate's Il-14 on a non-scheduled ferry flight of the empty aircraft: an airline's own ferry flight counts as air carrier. The article: "Aeroflot (Yakut Civil Aviation Directorate, Yakutsk Combined Aviation Detachment)"
- 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.