Aeroflot Flight 1080


Aeroflot Flight 1080 was a Soviet domestic passenger flight from Yekaterinburg, Russia to Kostanay, Kazakhstan that crashed at night shortly after takeoff on 7 October 1978. All 38 passengers and crew were killed in the crash which occurred when one of the engines failed due to icing during initial climb out. At the time, the crash was the second worst in the history of the Yakovlev Yak-40 which had entered operational service with Aeroflot just ten years prior.

Aircraft and flight

The Yak-40 involved in the accident, registration CCCP-87437, had entered service in 1974 and had just shy of 6,300 operating hours on the airframe by the time of the accident. Flight 1080 was being operated by the Kazakh Civil Aviation Administration under Aeroflot. It had 34 passengers, which included four children, and four crew on board during the flight of 7 October 1978. The crew consisted of two pilots, a flight mechanic, and a stewardess. It was flying a domestic flight from Sverdlovsk-Koltsovo Airport in Yekaterinburg, Russia to Kostanay Airport in northern Kazakhstan. On the night of the accident, the sky was cloudy and there were light rainy conditions in addition to an air temperature of 5 °C.

Accident

At 19:48 YEKT on 7 October 1978, Aeroflot Flight 1080 commenced its takeoff roll on runway 26 at Sverdlovsk-Koltsovo Airport. Due to the presence of a crosswind and the fact that the aircraft was loaded beyond its maximum weight capacity, it took off at a speed of 205 km/h. At 19:50, the crew reported to air traffic control that its left engine had failed.
Just one hundred meters off the ground, the aircraft began turning to the left. At 19:51, controllers observed a flash and a fire on a forested hillside close to the airport. The aircraft had struck trees while it was still 23 meters in the air and struck the ground shortly after, destroying the airframe and detaching the flight's tail and rear stabilizers. All 38 people aboard Flight 1080 were killed in the catastrophe.

Investigation

The Soviet State Research Institute of Civil Aviation accident commission determined the crash to be the fault of the crew. The aircraft was loaded beyond its specified limits consequently requiring additional thrust on takeoff. The crew failed to take into account icing conditions which were present at the time of the accident and as a result all three engines had been effected by a buildup of ice, resulting in the left engine failing shortly after takeoff and the right and middle producing insufficient levels of power. The commission also cited air traffic control's failure to point out nearby terrain after giving the aircraft clearance to turn left after takeoff at an altitude of just one hundred meters as a contributing factor to the accident.