Il-12 crash near Magadan (1953)

Investigation

In the course of the investigation the commission came to the opinion that the crash occurred due to a stall. It was now necessary to establish the cause of the stall itself. Examination of the wreckage found a layer of ice 5 mm thick on the tail section of the fuselage, while on the upper surface of the wing the ice layer was 6 millimetres thick. In fact, the aircraft had not been cleared of ice and snow before departure, which degraded its aerodynamic characteristics. In addition, it was established that the airliner's take-off weight had been exceeded by 994 kilograms. All this together led to the loss of control after take-off.

The crew and the flight director were named as responsible, the latter having failed to supervise his subordinates. That day the weather in the region was unstable, and the airport was closed to arriving aircraft. However, the flight director did not monitor the weather situation, and also dispatched 13 aircraft, even though the airport's weather minimum for the arrival and departure of aircraft was the same. That is, if the airport was closed to arrivals, it should also have been closed to departing aircraft, which was not done. When the crew submitted a flight assignment that lacked calculations of the aircraft's loading, fuelling and take-off weight, the airport controller signed this assignment. As a result, the airliner was cleared for flight despite being overloaded and covered with a layer of snow and ice. The main cause of the crash, in the opinion of the investigative commission, was that at Magadan airport there was no elementary order in the direction of flights.