An-26 accident in Minsk
Aeroflot Antonov An-26 · Crew error
From Riga Airport, (Latvian SSR, USSR) to Minsk-1 Airport (Byelorussian SSR, USSR)
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
- Occurrence
- Event fatalities
- Unknown
- Ground fatalities
- Unknown
- Occupants
- Unknown
- Survivors
- Unknown
- 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
- Airline
Antonov An-26
- Aircraft type
- Antonov AN-26
- Category
- Airplane · 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-26686
- Operator
- Aeroflot
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Riga Airport, (Latvian SSR, USSR)To Minsk-1 Airport (Byelorussian SSR, USSR)
Cause areas
- Aircraft › Aircraft oper/perf/capability
- Personnel issues › Task performance
- Aircraft › Aircraft handling/service
From the investigation findings the Wikipedia article reports, sorted into the NTSB's cause areas with AI assistance.
Not plotted · Not plotted: the Wikipedia article gives no coordinates, and its site names no town or airport that matches exactly.
From the Wikipedia article
The An-26 accident at Minsk-1 Airport was an aviation accident at Minsk-1 Airport that occurred on 12 April 1983 during the approach to land of An-26 CCCP-26686 on the "Riga—Minsk" flight. As a result of errors by the crew members, the aircraft was damaged on landing, but no one was killed or injured in the accident.
Investigation and cause
Causes of the accident
As a result of violations of the aircraft loading rules by the crew and the cargo service of Riga Airport, its centre of gravity exceeded the permissible values, which made the aircraft more difficult to control. The aircraft's takeoff weight did not exceed the established limits; the centre of gravity exceeded the aft limit and was 33.2% MAC.
The captain organised the pre-flight preparation unsatisfactorily and did not check the correctness of the centre-of-gravity calculation by the first officer. The loadmaster who supervised the loading, in violation of the job instructions for loading the An-26 aircraft, agreed to its placement without a centre-of-gravity calculation chart. The first officer did not ensure that the cargo was placed in accordance with the instructions and the centre of gravity he had calculated on the basis of the loadmasters' information.
The cargo operations service of Riga Airport did not take part in the commercial handling of the aircraft at the proper level. The aircraft's centre of gravity was not calculated in accordance with the aircraft's load. The load controller did not monitor the placement of cargo on the aircraft.
After this incident An-26 No. CCCP-26686 was written off and left on the grounds of Minsk airport.
Translated into English with AI assistance from the Russian Wikipedia article “Авария Ан-26 в Минске” (revision 150406970, 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: Авария Ан-26 в Минске
- Article
- Авария Ан-26 в Минске
- Translation
- Into English with AI assistance; names of linked operators and aircraft types from Wikidata. It may contain errors.
- Revision
- 150406970 · 2025-12-02 · retrieved 2026-09-19
- Wikidata
- Q83458988
- 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 "Авария Ан-26 в Минске" (page 8746325, revision 150406970), translated into English with AI assistance
- Date
- Wikipedia infobox: date
- Place and country
- Wikipedia infobox: site
- Map position
- none
- 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): An Aeroflot aircraft on a route flight from Riga to Minsk: a state airline transport flight. The article: "Antonov An-26 · CCCP-26686 · operator Aeroflot · from Riga Airport, (Latvian SSR, USSR) · to Minsk-1 Airport (Byelorussian SSR, USSR)"
- Fatalities
- not stated in the Wikipedia infobox
- 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.