Il-76 crash near Pskov

The Il-76 crash near Pskov was an aviation accident involving an Il-76M aircraft of the Russian Air Force, which occurred on Thursday 8 July 1993 near Pskov Airport (Kresty airfield); 11 people were killed.

Crash

The crew was performing a training flight, but when 8 minutes had passed since departure and the aircraft was still climbing to the 1200-metre flight level, communication with the tail gunner's cabin was suddenly lost. Noise also appeared in the internal and external communication systems, which the crew was unable to eliminate. When 22 minutes had passed since take-off (14 minutes after communication was lost), the flight director ordered aircraft 86039 to terminate the exercise, after which he passed the conditions for proceeding to the approach fix. The aircraft headed for the airfield, and during this flight elements of the tail section separated from the fuselage. 3 minutes after the exercise was terminated (the 25th minute of flight) the crew reported to the ground that there was a fire on board behind the pressure door, to which the flight director authorised an emergency descent. With the engines at 90 % power, the aircraft was rolled out of the bank and then put into a steep descent. Then, 3400 metres from the runway threshold and 480 metres to the left of its extended centreline (near the Lyubyatovo micro-district), the machine at 20:47:20 crashed into a forest, broke up and caught fire. All 11 people on board were killed.