Mi-8 crash near Naryan-Mar (1968)

The Mi-8 crash near Naryan-Mar was an aviation accident that occurred on 22 July 1968 110 km south-west of Naryan-Mar in the Nenets National Okrug of the USSR.

Sequence of events

Mi-8AT helicopter CCCP-22511 of the Naryan-Mar Joint Aviation Detachment (the first Mi-8 helicopter in the Naryan-Mar aviation detachment, received in May 1968) of the Arkhangelsk aviation group of the Northern Civil Aviation Directorate of the airline Aeroflot was performing charter flights to serve a geological expedition, with landing sites selected from the air. In the first half of the day on 22 July 1968 several flights were performed with a total flight time of 1 hour 55 minutes. In the second half of the day the crew refuelled the helicopter, installed an additional fuel tank from a Mi-4 helicopter on it and took off from Naryan-Mar for the area of the Ikchi River (130 km west of Naryan-Mar). Having taken on board 1400 kg of cargo — drilling and expedition equipment — pipes, various tools, tents, food, etc., as well as 5 expedition workers with a dog and a cat belonging to them, at 16:05 the crew took off for the area of Lake Terebey-to (110 km south-west of Naryan-Mar).

Having arrived at the expedition's drop-off point, after flying a check circuit to select a landing site from the air, the crew began to land. After touching down, the crew determined that the selected site was unsuitable for parking with the engines shut down, and took off to select another site. At a distance of 400 m from the first site, after a check inspection from the air, the crew began the landing approach. After hovering at a height of 1.5—2 m, the captain saw uneven ground beneath the helicopter and decided to move forward 10 m to a more level site. According to the crew's testimony, the operating parameters of the helicopter's engines and systems were normal. At that moment the crew felt a jerk (shudder) of the helicopter to the left in the horizontal plane, after which the helicopter began to rotate sharply to the left with great acceleration. The measures taken by the crew failed to stop the helicopter's rotation. According to the crew, the helicopter, having made several turns around its vertical axis, struck the ground with its landing gear wheels and came to a stop. Before the impact with the ground, the main rotor blades touched the ground and broke up. A blade of the free turbine broke off. The red-hot blade pierced the main fuel tank, and a fire started in the cabin. The flight engineer opened the door to the cargo cabin to help the passengers there. But a strong flame from the cargo cabin burned his face, head, hands and clothing and spread into the cockpit. The captain, pulling the flight engineer with him, left the helicopter through the right cockpit window. The co-pilot, having pushed the flight engineer out of the right window, left the cockpit through the left window. Having dragged the flight engineer 10—15 m from the helicopter, the crew heard an explosion of the fuel tanks inside the helicopter. The entire upper and forward parts of the helicopter were engulfed in flames, and the blisters in the helicopter's cargo cabin were blown out by the explosion. The 5 passengers and their animals were killed. The crash occurred at 16:35. The crew members suffered bruises and burns and 6.5 hours later were evacuated by helicopter to Naryan-Mar.