Crash of three Su-27s near Cam Ranh

The crash of three Su-27s near Cam Ranh was an aviation accident that occurred on Tuesday 12 December 1995, when at 06:23 MSK, during an approach to land in conditions of poor visibility, three Su-27 fighters of the «Russian Knights» aerobatic team crashed into a mountain 25 kilometres from Cam Ranh Air Base (Vietnam).

Four pilots died: 32-year-old Guards Lieutenant Colonel Nikolai Alekseyevich Grechanov, 38-year-old Guards Colonel Boris Mikhailovich Grigoryev, 34-year-old Guards Lieutenant Colonel Nikolai Viktorovich Kordyukov and 35-year-old Guards Lieutenant Colonel Aleksandr Viktorovich Syrovoy.

Crash

An air show was held on the Malaysian island of Langkawi (the international arms exhibition «LIMA-95» — LIMA (Langkawi International Maritime and Aerospace Exhibition)), in which the elite aerobatic team «Russian Knights» took part. They were returning as a group consisting of an Il-76 transport aircraft (flown by the head of the 1338th Test Centre of the 929th State Flight Test Centre of the Ministry of Defence of the Russian Federation, Vladimir Grebennikov, the group leader) and five Su-27 fighters (two of them two-seat «sparka» trainers). Two fighters flew to the left of the Il-76, 2-3 metres higher; three — to the right and the same distance lower.

In the verdict of the military court of 13 March 1998, the situation is set out as follows:

…the group led by Grebennikov was descending in close formation of aircraft in cloud with limited visibility conditions in dangerous proximity to mountainous terrain. At 6 hours 22 minutes 30 seconds (Moscow time), while performing the fourth turn at a barometric altitude of 600 metres, the light and sound warning alerting to a dangerous proximity of the aircraft to the terrain «SSOS» was triggered in the cockpit of the Il-76… Grebennikov did not report to the flight director what was happening on board, did not take the necessary actions to prevent the decrease in true flight altitude and did not give the command to his wingmen to climb. As a result… within 25 seconds, while the «SSOS» warning was operating, the true flight altitude of the Il-76 decreased to 32 metres, which, with the right bank of the air group formation, at 6 hours 22 min. 55 sec. led to the collision of the two outermost right wingman Su-27 aircraft (side numbers 07 and 09, serial numbers, respectively, 36911031615 and 36911031716), and at 6 hours 22 min. 59 sec. of the Su-27UB aircraft (side number 19, serial number 96310413040), with the slope of a mountain (elevation 722 metres) at a height of 604 metres, located at a distance of 25.5 kilometres and an azimuth of 193 degrees from the aerodrome reference point.