Il-76 crash near Vitebsk

The Il-76 crash near Vitebsk was an aviation accident involving an Il-76 aircraft of the Soviet Air Force that occurred on Friday, 23 November 1979, near the village of Goryany in Vitebsk District, Vitebsk Region, Byelorussian SSR, in which the aircraft's crew (7 people) was killed. It was the first crash involving an Il-76 military transport aircraft in the history of aviation.

Crash

A crew of the 339th Military Transport Aviation Regiment was performing a training flight around a large rectangular circuit at night in adverse weather conditions (10-tenths cloud cover at a height of 150 m, visibility — 2 km).

On the straight segment after the fourth turn and after extending the flaps further to 43°, at a distance of 12 km from the runway, with the ailerons in the neutral position, the aircraft began an uncommanded intense (up to 65°) roll and turn to the left while descending at an average vertical speed of up to 25–27 m/s and with a pitch angle of −23° to +4° (at the moment of contact with the ground). 1 second after the roll began, the aircraft commander began countering the roll with full deflection of the ailerons and the rudder to the right by more than 11°, while simultaneously deflecting the elevator upward and then giving the command to retract the flaps, which led to a reduction of the roll to 36.5° and a change in the pitch angle. As the roll decreased, the commander briefly (for 1 second) moved the ailerons to a position close to neutral, which again led to an increase in the roll, which the commander countered with full deflection of the ailerons and rudder, reducing the roll to 33–35°. The aircraft turned through 180°, lost altitude and, with a bank of 33°–35°, struck the ground with its left wing, was completely destroyed and burned. The crash occurred in a field near the village of Goryany in Vitebsk District. The crew was killed.