Aeroflot Flight 1912 was a scheduled domestic Aeroflot passenger flight on the Odessa-Kiev-Chelyabinsk-Novosibirsk-Irkutsk-Karbarovsk-Vladivostok route that crashed on 25 July 1971, making a hard landing at Irkutsk Airport. It touched down 150 m short of the runway, breaking the left wing and catching fire. Of the 126 people on board the aircraft, 29 survived.
Aircraft
The aircraft involved in the accident was a Tupolev Tu-104B, registered CCCP-42405 to the West SiberiaCivil Aviation Directorate, a division of Aeroflot. At the time of the accident the aircraft operated 19,489 flight hours and sustained 9,929 pressurization cycles.
Crew
The crew of the fatal flight took over in Novosibirsk. A total of eight crew members were aboard the flight, of which 5 were from the cockpit crew. The cockpit crew consisted of:
Flight attendants G. K. Eselevich, L. B. Shokin and A. N. Sorokin served as the cabin crew.
Synopsis
The Odessa-Kiev-Chelyabinsk-Novosibirsk part of the route was carried out by a different aircraft, Tu-104B registered CCCP-42402; as well as a different crew. At the stopover in Novosibirsk at Tolmachevo Airport, a new crew and aircraft took on the route. At 04:34 local time the airliner departed Novosibirsk for Irkutsk. After takeoff the flight maintained an altitude of 10,000 meters. In Irkutsk, the sky was completely covered with stratus clouds with a ceiling of 150 meters, mild north-easterly winds were present, and visibility was at 1500 meters. The crew was instructed to proceed on the final approach on a bearing of 116°. At 08:10 local time the air traffic controller gave flight 1912 permission to begin descent. At 08:29:35 the crew received a landing instructions and permission to descend to an altitude of 400 meters. The flight crew responded that they heard the information and would begin approach with the ILS. In response, the air traffic controller reported weather conditions to the flight. At 08:31:52 the flight was on approach 17 kilometers from the runway. At first, the aircraft stayed on the correct trajectory; but when the aircraft was eight kilometers from the runway, the air traffic controller warned the flight that it was straying to the left. At 08:33:45 local time, when the flight was just seven kilometers from the runway, the air traffic controller warned that they were close to missing the glide slope. In response, the flight crew notified the controller that the landing gear had been released and they were ready to land. At 08:33:58 received permission to land; the crew confirmed they received the information. At 08:34:18 the crew reported they were near the non-directional beacon. The controller again warned the flight of the slight deviation to the left. The recommended instrument approach speed for the Tu-104 is 300 km/h, but it is very likely that the aircraft's instruments overstated the speed, causing the misinformed crew tried to reduce speed. In reality, the aircraft's speed was around 270–275 km/h, causing a left bank and a lateral deviation of 30 meters. At 08:34:47 the aircraft passed the non-directional beacon at an altitude of 85 meters. Due to flying 25–30 km/h less than the recommended speed, the aircraft reached a critical angle of attack. At 08:35:00 with a vertical speed of approximately 8–10 m/s, the TU-104 hit the right landing gear on the runway 154 meters from the base of the runway; milliseconds later the left landing gear, then the front gear, stuck the runway. Shortly thereafter the left wing of the plane broke, fuel leaking from the broken left tanks ignited. The plane skidded on the runway, causing the fuselage to break into pieces. The wreckage of the plane was strewn over an area of 500 meters. 97 people perished in the crash; the captain, the co-pilot, the flight engineer, a flight attendant, as well as 73 adult passengers and 20 children. 36 of the deaths were from carbon monoxide poisoning.
Causes
The flight was on an approach speed far below the recommended parameters. The instruments most likely gave inaccurate readings, causing the crew to reduce speed before touching the runway led to a hard landing. Examination of the airspeed indicators showed that the indicators themselves were functional, but flight tests showed that changes cabin pressure affected the pressure in the full-pressure pipeline of the speed indicator used by the co-pilot and the navigator; resulting in an overstatement of the speed ranging from 17 to 80 km/h. While simulating the flight to determine the cause of the erroneous indications, the depressurization happened approximately three minutes after turning off the cabin pressurization. The probability of such events occurring during descent was supposed to be 0.000001%. The investigation cited the three primary causes of the accident as follows:
