1972 Svetlogorsk An-24 crash

1972 Svetlogorsk An-24 crash

An-24T, similar to the one that crashed
Accident
Date	16 May 1972 (1972-05-16)
Summary	Crash during inspection flight
Site	Svetlogorsk (Kaliningrad Oblast, RSFSR, USSR) 54°56′37.9″N20°09′45.0″E / 54.943861°N 20.162500°E / 54.943861; 20.162500
Total fatalities	35
Total injuries	2
Aircraft
Aircraft type	Antonov An-24T
Operator	Soviet Navy Baltic Fleet Air Force (263rd Separate Transport Aviation Regiment)
Registration	05
Flight origin	Khrabrovo Airport, Kaliningrad
1st stopover	Kosa
Last stopover	Chkalovsk
Destination	Khrabrovo Airport, Kaliningrad
Passengers	2
Crew	6
Fatalities	8
Survivors	0
Ground casualties
Ground fatalities	27
Ground injuries	2

The Svetlogorsk An-24 crash was an aviation accident that occurred on May 16, 1972. An An-24T of the 263rd Separate Transport Aviation Regiment of the Baltic Fleet Air Force was conducting an inspection flight to test radio equipment, but 15 minutes after takeoff, in difficult weather conditions, it clipped trees and crashed into a kindergarten building in Svetlogorsk. The crash resulted in 35 fatalities: all 2 passengers and 6 crew members on the An-24, and 27 people on the ground (24 children and 3 kindergarten staff). ^{[1] [2]}

Aircraft

The An-24T (factory number 9911302, serial number 13-02) was manufactured by the Irkutsk Aviation Plant in 1969. That same year, it was transferred to the 263rd Separate Transport Aviation Regiment of the Baltic Fleet Air Force, where it was assigned tail number 05. It was equipped with two Ivchenko AI-24 turboprop engines produced by ZMK "Progress" named after A.G. Ivchenko. ^{[3] [4]}

Crew

The crew of aircraft 05 included:

• Captain Vilor Ilyich Gutnik, commander.
• Senior Lieutenant Viktor Baranov, co-pilot.
• Captain Alexander Kostin, navigator.
• Warrant Officer Nikolai Ivanovich Gavrilyuk, Flight engineer.
• Senior Lieutenant Andrey Lyutov, radio technician.
• Warrant Officer Leonid Sergienko, airborne radio operator-gunner.

Additionally, 2 passengers were on board:

• Lieutenant colonel Lev Denisov, senior flight inspector of the flight safety department of the Baltic Fleet Air Force.
• Lieutenant Colonel Anatoly Svetlov, senior radio equipment engineer.

Sequence of Events

Preceding Circumstances

On May 13, 1972, the commander of the Baltic Fleet Air Force, Colonel General of aviation Sergey Gulyayev, ^[2] approved the flight plan. According to this plan, the flight was to follow this route:

1. Takeoff from Khrabrovo Airport
2. City of Zelenogradsk
3. Taran Cape
4. Landing at the airfield in Kosa settlement
5. Takeoff from Kosa settlement airfield
6. Landing at Chkalovsk settlement airfield
7. Takeoff from Chkalovsk settlement airfield
8. Landing at Khrabrovo Airport

On May 16, 1972, at 12:15, An-24T aircraft 05 took off from Khrabrovo Airport towards the Baltic Sea. According to the plan, the flight was to be conducted visually at an altitude of 500 meters, but based on the report from the crew commander, the flight took place at only 50 meters. All stages of the route were supposed to be carried out over the sea.

After making a turn over the sea, the aircraft crossed the coastline near Zelenogradsk and set course for Taran Cape. Shortly after, aircraft 05 disappeared from the radar screens.

The Crash

At approximately 12:30, aircraft 05 entered thick fog over Svetlogorsk at an unacceptably low altitude. On the steep shore of Svetlogorsk, it clipped the tops of pine trees and lost part of its wing. The aircraft then flew about 200 meters further, flipped over, and crashed into the building of the Svetlogorsk kindergarten. Upon impact, the building's second floor was completely destroyed.^{[ citation needed ]}

As a result of the crash, there was a massive fuel leak, and a severe fire broke out; at that moment, 29 people were inside the kindergarten (by the time of the crash, the children had returned from a walk and were sitting down for lunch). The crash killed all 8 people on board the An-24 (6 crew members and 2 passengers), 24 children aged 2 to 7, and 3 kindergarten staff members—the cook Tamara Yankovskaya, and teachers Valentina Shabashova-Metelitsa (who survived the crash but later died in a military hospital) and Antonina Romanenko (who also survived but died in a military hospital six months later). ^[1] Of those in the kindergarten, only two survived.

Laboratory tests showed the presence of alcohol in the pilots' blood.

Reaction

By 21:00 on May 16, less than 9 hours after the crash, the debris had been cleared: the aircraft wreckage and the remains of the victims had been removed. By the morning of May 17, a small park had been completed on the site of the kindergarten. To minimize public attention, on the day of the funerals of the victims, suburban trains were canceled, and road traffic connecting the regional center to Svetlogorsk was restricted. Around 10,000 people gathered at the cemetery. ^[5]

Investigation

Memorial chapel at the crash site

The investigation into the causes of the Svetlogorsk crash was conducted by a Moscow commission headed by Deputy Minister of Defense of the USSR for armaments, Colonel General Nikolai Alekseev.^{[ citation needed ]}

As of July 2019, there has been no official publication of the investigation materials. The publicly stated cause of the crash, which despite the authorities’ efforts at the time to conceal it, could not be entirely hidden, was described as “Unsatisfactory preparation and flight management”. ^[6] No criminal case was initiated in connection with the crash. The internal investigation by the Ministry of Defense of the USSR resulted in a secret order from the Minister of Defense of the USSR Andrei Grechko, which led to the dismissal of about 40 military personnel. ^[2]

There are theories suggesting the crew lacked sufficient experience. ^[4] Some sources ^[2] publish a version, based on documents provided by the former commander of the Baltic Fleet Air Force, Lieutenant General Vasily Proskurnin, that point to a technical malfunction. According to this version, at the time of collision with the pines, aircraft 05's altimeter indicated an altitude of 150 meters above sea level, while the actual altitude (at the location of the aircraft's collision with the trees) was 42 meters. The error in the altimeter readings is explained by the fact that the day before the flight, the decision was made within the Baltic Fleet Air Force to replace the altimeters from the Il-14 with those in the An-24. The operability of the altimeters after this replacement was not properly checked. Experiments conducted during the investigation established that the crew of aircraft 05 received data with an error margin of up to 60–70 meters.

Honored test pilot of Russia Vladimir Biryukov believes that the pilots incorrectly set the pressure at takeoff or did not set it at all.^{[ citation needed ]}

Memorial

In 1994, a chapel was erected at the crash site with a plaque reading: “The temple-monument in honor of the icon of the Mother of God ‘Joy of All Who Sorrow’ was built on the site of the tragic death of the kindergarten on May 16, 1972”. ^[2]

References

1. Merkachova, Eva (2014-05-16). "Неизвестные факты о самой трагической авиакатастрофе в истории страны: падении самолёта на детский сад". MK.ru. Archived from the original on 2015-08-01. Retrieved 2015-07-27.
2. «Правда». 16.05.2006. Valery Gromak. «The Tragedy That Was Silent for 30 Years»
3. "05 — russianplanes.net — Aircraft Card". Archived from the original on 2019-11-04. Retrieved 2019-11-04.
4. An-26 in the aviation encyclopedia "Corner of the Sky"
5. «Kaliningrad Pravda». 14.05.2007. Vlad Rzhevsky. «The Fatal Twenty Meters»
6. Aviation incidents, accidents, and crashes in the USSR and Russia. Crash of the An-24 of the Baltic Fleet Air Force in Svetlogorsk

External links

• Crash description on Aviation Safety Network
• Crash of the An-24T of the Baltic Fleet Air Force in Svetlogorsk (tail 05), May 16, 1972.
• 40 years since the crash. Video