Il-12 crash near Zugdidi

Investigation

As the commission established, the thunderstorms on the Krasnodar — Sukhumi route, because of which flight 229 was forced to make an unscheduled stop in Krasnodar, were observed from 7 to 13 o'clock. After that, thunderstorms began to appear on various sectors of the Sukhumi — Kutaisi — Surami route, and they developed quite quickly. In particular, at 16:15 a thunderstorm was observed near Zugdidi, and at 17:30 already in Kutaisi. The aviation meteorological station issued a weather forecast according to which from 16 to 19 o'clock a thunderstorm condition was declared on the sector of the route from Sukhumi to Tbilisi, and a thunderstorm was expected on the Mikha-Tskhakaya — Kutaisi sector. However, the flight director at Sukhumi Airport did not pay due attention to the fact that the weather situation from Sukhumi to Kutaisi was deteriorating, and allowed the Il-12 aircraft to pass through the airport zone and continue the flight to Tbilisi.

According to the testimony of local residents, in the area of the accident, as indicated in the forecast, there was a severe thunderstorm with hail and heavy rain, with frequent lightning strikes. The crew did not expect the thunderstorm, so entering it came as a complete surprise. It is possible that lightning struck the aircraft, partially affecting the crew as well, after which the uncontrolled airliner went either into a dive or into an uncontrolled fall. However, during the descent the crew managed to recover and tried to avoid a collision with the ground, for which at an altitude of about 300 metres they sharply pulled the control columns "towards themselves", that is, making the aircraft raise its nose. But during this manoeuvre a load factor arose that exceeded the critical one, after which both outer wing panels were torn off in the area of ribs 9—14 (the outer part, outboard of the engines). Having lost considerable parts of the wing, the aircraft could no longer continue flying, so the fuselage with the engines running went into a vertical fall and dropped like a stone to the ground, as a result of which it broke up and burned. The separated parts of the wing fell 120 metres from it and 50 metres from each other.