An-22 accident at Seshcha

Causes

According to the commission's conclusion, the reason the aircraft did not respond to movements of the control column was the spontaneous activation of the elevator locking system. The warning lights on the panel in the cockpit, for their part, did not warn of this, as if the control surfaces had actually been unlocked. The cause of this malfunction in the warning system was a faulty limit microswitch, which was a consequence of the imperfect design of the elevator locking system on all An-22 “Antei” aircraft up to the fourth generation.

However, the commission named as the main cause of the accident not the technical failure but errors in the crew's work. In the investigators' opinion, before proceeding to the runway the pilots should have checked that the elevators were actually unlocked. And when, during the takeoff, the commander realised that something was wrong with the elevators and that the aircraft was not lifting its nose gear off the ground, he should have immediately aborted the takeoff in order to stop within the runway. On this basis, in the commission's opinion, the factors that led to the accident were the following:

Unsatisfactory organisation of flying and educational work in the air regiment.

Aircraft commander Stenyaev had been cleared for flying, even though his professional and moral-psychological qualities were rather low. He also violated the requirements of the Crew Instructions regarding the checking of the control system.

The leadership of the military unit was not sufficiently demanding on matters of the quality of preparation of crews and aircraft for flights.