Khabarovsk Airlines Flight 463


Khabarovsk Airlines Flight 463 was a scheduled domestic passenger flight from Nikolayevsk-on-Amur Airport to Nelkan Airport in Russia. On 15 November 2017 the Let L-410 Turbolet operating the flight crashed short of the runway at Nelkan airport, killing all but one of the seven people on board. The sole survivor was a three-year-old girl who sustained serious injuries. The crash was caused by a malfunction of the right engine's propeller.

Accident

During approach to runway 04 at Nelkan airport, the aircraft suddenly lost speed, rolled 180 degrees to the left, and crashed into a forest from the runway. Both pilots and four of the five passengers on board were killed. There were no fatalities on the ground.

Aircraft

The aircraft involved was an Let 410UVP-E20, registration RA-67047, msn 3010. It first few in 2015 and was powered by two General Electric H80-200 engines. At the time of the accident, the aircraft had flown for 1,693 hours and completed 1,071 flights.

Passengers and crew

There were five passengers and two crew members, totaling up to seven people.
The captain was a 42-year-old male who had 12,076 flight hours, including 1,243 hours on the Let L-410 Turbolet. The first officer was a 30-year old male who had 1,220 flight hours, including, 837 hours on the Let L-410 Turbolet. One survivor, a child age 3 years, was severely injured.

Investigation

The Interstate Aviation Committee investigated the accident with assistance from the Czech Air Accidents Investigation Institute, representing the state of manufacture of the aircraft. A preliminary report was released on 22 December 2017. The final report was released in August 2019. The cause of the accident was that the propeller on the right hand engine had gone into negative pitch in flight, leading to a loss of control. Twenty-four safety recommendations were made.

Safety actions

At the time of the accident, there were no instructions given to pilots for use in the event of a propeller going into beta range in flight. The risk of this happening being assessed as 1 in 10−14. Following the accident, and evidence being found of other occurrences, an instruction was issued that the affected propeller was to be feathered and the flight completed on one engine.