Mid-air collision over Borulakh
Aeroflot (Yakutsk Civil Aviation Directorate, Magan Joint Aviation Detachment) Mil Mi-1 and Aeroflot (Yakutsk Civil Aviation Directorate, Batagay Joint Aviation Detachment) Mil Mi-4 · Crew errors
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
- 4 · all aircraft and ground
- Ground fatalities
- Unknown
- Occupants
- Unknown
- Survivors
- 0
- 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
- General aviation
Aircraft 1 · Mil Mi-1
- Aircraft type
- Mil MI-1
- Category
- Helicopter · 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-17829
- Onboard fatalities
- 4
- Route
- From BorulakhTo Borulakh
Aircraft 2 · Mil Mi-4
- Aircraft type
- Mil MI-4
- Category
- Helicopter · 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-35295
- Onboard fatalities
- 0
- Occupants
- Not stated
- Survivors
- 5
- 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
- Not stated
- Route
- From not recordedTo Borulakh
Cause areas
- Organizational issues › Management
- Organizational issues › Support/oversight/monitoring
From the investigation findings the Wikipedia article reports, sorted into the NTSB's cause areas with AI assistance.
Approximate · Estimated position: Tomtor, Borulakhsky Rural Okrug, Verkhoyansky District, Sakha Republic, near the place the Wikipedia article names. Not the accident site.
From the Wikipedia article
The collision over Borulakh was an aviation accident that occurred on Tuesday 19 May (Monday 18 May MSK) 1970, when two helicopters of the Yakutsk Civil Aviation Directorate (Aeroflot) collided in the sky over the Borulakh nasleg (Yakut ASSR); 4 people were killed.
Crash
A flight of Mi-1 helicopters of the Magan aviation detachment had been seconded to the settlement of Borulakh, near the village of Tomtor, and was serving a geological expedition (working at the Tomtor deposit). Helicopters of the Batagay aviation detachment were also based in the settlement for the same purpose. On the day of the accident, pilot N. S. Levshin of the 288th flight detachment took aviation technician L. A. Bekenev and two teenagers on board Mi-1 aircraft 17829, simply to give them a ride. Having climbed to a height of 15—20 metres, the helicopter began circling around the settlement of Borulakh, while Levshin hardly paid attention to the situation around him. Meanwhile, Mi-4 aircraft 35295, whose pilot was M. A. Lazutkin, was already approaching the landing site. He too was practically not paying attention to the situation around him, and so when he suddenly saw the Mi-1 next to him, the collision could no longer be avoided. The main rotor blades of aircraft 17829 (Mi-1) struck the rear part of the fuselage of aircraft 35295 (Mi-4), piercing the skin, but themselves separated in the process. Unable to continue flying with a destroyed main rotor, the Mi-1 fell like a stone to the ground, broke up and burned out completely. All 4 people in it (the pilot, the aviation technician and the two teenagers) were killed. Pilot Lazutkin, despite the damage to his helicopter, managed to make an emergency landing, and no one on board was killed, although the machine was beyond repair.
Investigation and cause
Causes
According to the commission's conclusion, the crash occurred because of the lack of order and discipline in the flight of helicopters of the Magan joint detachment stationed in Borulakh. Drinking bouts among the flight and technical personnel had become almost the norm, because of which the hostel and the pilots' room, where these drinking bouts were often held, were filthy and disorder reigned in them. No pre-flight preparation or post-flight debriefings were carried out. The deputy commander for political affairs of the 288th flight detachment, V. P. Podkolzin, flew to Borulakh twice on inspection, but did not notice any violations. The deputy commander for flight service of the Magan aviation detachment, A.I. Koryagin, and the commander of the 288th flight detachment, L.S. Roslyakov, never once checked how things stood in the seconded flight of helicopters at all. Although helicopters of the Batagay joint aviation detachment were also based in Borulakh, the management of that aviation detachment did not take control over the flight of Magan helicopters.
Translated into English with AI assistance from the Russian Wikipedia article “Столкновение над Борулахом” (revision 150406416, 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: Столкновение над Борулахом
- Article
- Столкновение над Борулахом
- Translation
- Into English with AI assistance; names of linked operators and aircraft types from Wikidata. It may contain errors.
- Revision
- 150406416 · 2025-12-02 · retrieved 2026-09-19
- Wikidata
- Q19907496
- 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 "Столкновение над Борулахом" (page 5409961, revision 150406416), translated into English with AI assistance
- Date
- Wikipedia infobox: date
- Place and country
- Wikipedia infobox: site
- Map position
- place the Wikipedia infobox site links (Wikidata coordinates)
- 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): The fatal Mi-1 flight was a joyride for a technician and two teenagers while the helicopters were serving a geological expedition: a recreational flight, not airline transport. The article: "took aviation technician L. A. Bekenev and two teenagers on board Mi-1 aircraft 17829, simply to give them a ride"
- Fatalities
- Wikipedia infobox: total_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.