Il-14 crash near Stalingrad (1958)

The Il-14 crash near Stalingrad was an aviation accident involving an Aeroflot Il-14M passenger aircraft that occurred on Sunday 7 December 1958 near Stalingrad, in which 1 person was killed.

Crash

The aircraft was operating passenger flight 213 from Voronezh to Stalingrad and at 20:50, with 5 crew members and 19 passengers on board, departed from Voronezh Airport. According to the weather forecast received by the crew, continuous nimbostratus and fractonimbus cloud with a base of 100—200 metres, snowfall and visibility of about 1—2 kilometres were expected in the area of Gumrak Airport (Stalingrad). When at 22:24 the Il-14 passed the outer marker at an altitude of 600 metres, there was already continuous cloud at a height of 60 metres, light snow and haze. The airport's weather minimum No. 1 was 100 by 1000 metres, and for an approach using the OSP landing system — 50 by 500 metres. In turn, commander Korotkov had no training for performing an approach using localizer and glide slope beacons in difficult weather conditions at the weather minimum. Thus, the actual weather conditions at the airport were below the crew commander's personal weather minimum, while there was still enough fuel on board to reach an alternate airfield. However, after receiving the report of passing the outer marker, the flight director cleared the crew to perform a cloud-penetration approach using the OSP and SP-50 landing systems.

While performing the landing approach, the crew reported passing the outer marker at an altitude of 200 metres and being ready to land. During the descent towards the inner marker, the crew tried to see the approach lights, but in doing so allowed the aircraft to drift to the right. When those on the aircraft spotted the runway landing lights, the airliner was to the right of the runway and already well past the threshold. The commander then decided to discontinue the approach and go around, and requested this from the flight director, without stating the reason or the actual weather. The flight director in turn did not ask the crew the reason for this decision, instead giving the command to go around. The flight director suggested that Flight 213 divert to the alternate airfield in Voronezh or Rostov, but the aircraft requested a second approach. The weather continued to deteriorate, but the flight director nevertheless cleared a second approach.

When the aircraft was performing the second approach, in order not to be drifted to the left by the crosswind, the approach was flown with a drift correction angle. However, the angle was larger than necessary, and moreover increased after passing the outer marker, even though there was no wind near the ground. At 22:40 the aviation meteorological station (AMSG) issued a storm warning, since there was fog and visibility had dropped to 500 metres, but the crew did not discontinue the approach. It is possible that the commander stopped monitoring the instruments as he was trying to make out the landing lights, while continuing the descent. The co-pilot in turn did not help the commander. But the crew could not see the lights, since after passing the outer marker the airliner had deviated significantly to the right and passed abeam the inner marker at a distance of 450 metres, finding itself at a dangerously low altitude. There were 30 metres left to the ground when the flight engineer said that they needed to go around. But then the Il-14, flying with a right bank, clipped the tops of the trees of a shelterbelt with its right wing. The commander tried to save the situation by increasing engine power, but the aircraft, catching the trees with its wing, had already lost speed and at 22:42 struck the ground. On impact the nose section of the fuselage was destroyed, as a result of which flight engineer Glukhov was killed. The other crew members were injured; the passengers were unharmed.