Aeroflot Flight 191

Aeroflot Flight 191
	An Aeroflot Ilyushin Il-18, similar to the one involved in the crash
Accident
Date	5 March 1963
Summary	Crashed as a result of a dust storm
Site	Ashkhabad (now Ashgabat) International Airport, Ashkhabad, Turkmen SSR, Soviet Union
Aircraft
Aircraft type	Il-18V
Operator	Aeroflot
Registration	CCCP-75765
Flight origin	Vnukovo International Airport, Moscow, Russian SFSR, Soviet Union
Stopover	Krasnovodsk Airport (now Turkmenbashi International Airport), Krasnovodsk (now Türkmenbaşy), Turkmen SSR, Soviet Union
Destination	Ashgabat International Airport, Ashgabat, Turkmen SSR, Soviet Union
Passengers	43
Crew	11
Fatalities	12
Survivors	42

Last updated December 31, 2023

Aeroflot Flight 191 was a Soviet domestic passenger flight from Vnukovo International Airport to Ashkhabad (now Ashgabat) International Airport, with a stopover in Krasnovodsk Airport (now Turkmenbashi International Airport). On 5 March 1963, the Ilyushin Il-18 crashed while landing at Ashgabat International Airport as a result of a dust storm. 12 of the 54 people on board were killed.

Aircraft

The aircraft involved was an IL-18V with tail number of CCCP-75765 and a serial number of 181003404. The aircraft was launched on 28 June 1961 and was transferred to Turkmenistan Airlines. At the time of the crash, the aircraft had 2,098 flight hours and 1,213 landings.^[1]^[2]

Crew

The cockpit crew of Flight 191 consisted of 8 people in the following positions:^[2]

Mikhail Isaevich Romanenko – Pilot
Alexander Petrovich Dorogov – First officer
Vasily Alexandrovich Tembay – Navigator
Anatoly Fedorovich Chumikov – Flight engineer
Nikolai Fedorovich Krasnov – Flight engineer in training
Sergey Ivanovich Shalaev – Radio operator
Pyotr Nikolaevich Petrov – Senior navigator
Ivan Ivanovich Aldushin – Inspector and senior pilot instructor

Accident

The flights route was from Vnukovo International Airport to Ashgabat International Airport with a stopover at Turkmenbashi International Airport. At 18:04, Flight 191 took off from Turkmenbashi with 43 passengers. According to the weather forecast of the crew in Ashgabat, the sky was covered by cumulonimbus clouds with a lower boundary of 600-1,000 meters. The visibility was 4-10 kilometers. After 21:00, the weather was expected to deteriorate with a dust storm containing northwestern winds at 18–20 m / s and resulting in a visibility of less than 1,000 meters. According to such data, the crew could have completed the flight before the weather worsened. But, the weather worsened much faster than expected and at 17:00, the weather forecaster of Ashgabat Airport issued new data. However, the weather forecaster at Krasnovodsk Airport did not inform the crew about the change in forecast.^[2]

The crew of Flight 191 were unaware of the changed forecast in Ashgabat. Five to twenty minutes after departure from Krasnovodsk, at a flight level of 6,000 meters, the aircraft encountered heavy turbulence, making the crew change course. At 19:15, the air traffic controller gave the crew information of a dust storm with a visibility of 300 meters. Because of the strong radio interference caused by the storm, the crew did not hear this data. Since the aircraft had a visibility of 5 kilometers and was already flying in difficult weather conditions, the pilots did not try to find out the updated weather forecast. The air traffic controllers made no attempt to re-contact the aircraft to report the actual weather and redirect it to an alternate airport.^[2]

When the aircraft was 25 kilometers north of the airport, the crew began to perform a landing approach with a heading of 295 °. Due to strong atmospheric interference, the radio compass began to give false readings, including the flights non-directional beacon . The crew discovered this error and brought the plane to the area of the beacon. After the 3rd and 4th U-turns, the aircraft, at an altitude of 400 meters, entered its final approach. The first officer took over the controls. The crew reported that they saw the runway lights and began to approach the runway. While landing, the aircraft headlights were turned on, which is a mistake in a dust storm as it creates a screen that reduces visibility.^[2]

While attempting to land, the aircraft unexpectedly fell into strong turbulence with a wind of 20-25 m / s and visibility dropping to 30 meters. The aircraft began to roll severely causing the flight instruments to malfunction. At one point, the aircraft was only 7 meters from the ground and 250 meters from the runway with a roll of 5–7 °. The leftmost wheel hit a runway light 6 meters high and the right wheel knocked down a telegraph pole 7 meters high. 150 meters from the runway, having lost speed, the aircraft began to descend, hitting the reinforced concrete pillar of runway lights 100 meters from the site of the first collision. With a roll of 30 °, the aircraft began to bring down reinforced concrete pillars, then the runway fence, after which it crashed 1,012 meters from the end of the runway.^[2]

While skidding on the runway, the airliner lost both wings and the cockpit was completely destroyed. The fuselage tipped over on its left side. There was a fire in which the entire middle section of the aircraft burned. All 8 cockpit crew members died along with 4 passengers.^[2]

Cause

The immediate cause of the disaster was flying in violation of minimum weather standards. As a result, the aircraft flew into dangerous weather. The air traffic controllers were blamed for the crash as they did not give the crew updated weather information or attempt to offer the flight an alternate airport. The air traffic controllers also decided to land the plane in dangerous weather conditions. A mistake was made by the crew as well as they did not try to seek updated weather information.^[2]

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Aeroflot Flight 15 was a passenger flight from Moscow-Domodedovo Airport to Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky Airport with a stopover at Yemelyanovo Airport that crashed on 29 February 1968 en route to Petropavlovsk. All but one aboard the aircraft were killed in the crash.

Aeroflot Flight 721 was a scheduled domestic passenger flight between Moscow and Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk in the Russian SFSR. On Wednesday, 2 September 1964, the aircraft flying this route, an Ilyushin Il-18V, crashed into the side of a hill on approach to Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk, killing 87 of the 93 people on board. At the time of the accident, it was the deadliest Il-18 crash and the deadliest aviation accident on Russian soil.

Aeroflot Flight 1036 was a domestic scheduled passenger flight operated by Aeroflot that crashed during takeoff from Sochi International Airport on 1 October 1972. All 109 people aboard the Ilyushin Il-18V perished in the crash. It is the second worst accident involving an Ilyushin Il-18 and it was the worst accident involving one at the time.

Aeroflot Flight N-528 was a regular commercial flight from Odesa to Berdyansk that crashed while attempting to land in poor weather conditions.

Aeroflot Flight 99 was a Tupolev Tu-124 operating a scheduled domestic passenger flight from Leningrad to Murmansk, both in the Soviet Union, which crashed while attempting to land on 11 November 1965. Of the 64 passengers and crew on board, 32 were killed in the accident, and many of the survivors sustained injuries.

Aeroflot Flight 5003 was a scheduled passenger flight from Tashkent to Mineralnye Vody with a stopover in Nukus; the Ilyushin 18V operating the route on 15 February 1977 crashed near the district of Mineralnye Vody while climbing after a missed approach. Of the 98 people on board, 77 perished in the crash.

Aeroflot Flight 558 was a scheduled Ilyushin Il-18V domestic passenger flight from Karaganda to Moscow that crashed into a field in the Abzelilovsky District on 31 August 1972 as a result of a fire stemming from exploded passenger baggage, killing all 102 people on board.

Aeroflot Flight 2808 was a scheduled domestic passenger flight from Mineralnye Vody to Ivanovo, both in Russia, with a stopover in Donetsk, Ukraine on 27 August 1992. While attempting to land at Ivanovo airport, the Tupolev Tu-134 crashed into a group of buildings in the village of Lebyazhy Lug. Investigators determined the cause of the accident was errors made by the crew and the air traffic controller. There were no fatalities on the ground, but all 84 people on board the flight died in the crash.

Aeroflot Flight 101/X-20 was a scheduled domestic passenger flight from Moscow to Alma-Ata via Omsk, Soviet Union, that crashed in low visibility conditions on 4 January 1965, killing 64 of the 103 people on board.

The 1958 Aeroflot Тu-104 Kanash crash occurred on 17 October 1958 when a Tupolev Tu-104A operated by Aeroflot flying an international route from Beijing to Moscow crashed in bad weather near the town of Kanash, Chuvashia, Russia, four hundred miles east of Moscow, killing all 80 people on board. The flight was carrying high-level diplomatic delegations from numerous Soviet aligned countries such as China, East Germany, and Czechoslovakia. It was just the second fatal accident involving the Tu-104 which had been introduced into Aeroflot's inventory two years earlier, and the deadliest in the airline's history until the crash of Aeroflot Flight 902 in 1962.

On 27 April 1974, an Aeroflot Il-18 airliner crashed while operating a charter flight from Leningrad to Zaporizhzhia, continuing to Krasnodar, Russia. The plane crashed shortly after takeoff from Pulkovo Airport in Leningrad. None of the 109 people on board survived. The engine fire was caused by the uncontained failure of a faulty compressor disk.

Aeroflot Flight N-36 was a scheduled domestic Aeroflot passenger flight from Chernivtsi International Airport to Kiev Zhuliany Airport, Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic that crashed on 17 December 1976 near Kyiv airport, resulting in 48 fatalities and 7 survivors.

Aeroflot Flight 207 was a Soviet domestic passenger flight from Rostov-on-Don Airport to Tbilisi International Airport that crashed on 10 June 1960 in the Tkvarcheli district. The crash involved an Ilyushin Il-14 aircraft operated by Aeroflot. There were 24 passengers and 7 crew on board, all of whom perished in the crash.

Aeroflot Flight 120 was an international Soviet passenger flight from Kabul International Airport in Afghanistan to Tashkent International Airport in the Uzbek SSR. On 13 December 1959 the Aeroflot Ilyushin Il-14P operating the flight crashed in the Boysun District killing all 25 passengers and 5 crew on board.

Aeroflot Flight 699 was a scheduled flight, operated by Tupolev Tu-154B CCCP-85254, from Moscow Domodedovo Airport to Krasnovodsk Airport that crashed on approach to its destination.

On October 23, 1959, an Ilyushin Il-14 operating as Aeroflot Flight 200 crashed while attempting to land at Vnukovo Airport near Moscow, Moscow Oblast, Russian SFSR, USSR. After being delayed due to bad weather, the aircraft attempted to touch down around 22:00 but crashed approximately 1,400 meters short of the runway after striking trees. Bad weather and pilot error contributed to the crash.

References

↑ "Ильюшин Ил-18В Бортовой №: CCCP-75765". Russianplanes.net. Archived from the original on 2013-04-24. Retrieved 2013-04-27.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 "Катастрофа Ил-18В Туркменского управления ГВФ в а/п Ашхабад". airdisaster.ru. Archived from the original on 2013-01-22. Retrieved 2013-04-27.

External links

Accident description at the Aviation Safety Network

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[1] "Ильюшин Ил-18В Бортовой №: CCCP-75765". Russianplanes.net. Archived from the original on 2013-04-24. Retrieved 2013-04-27.

[airdisaster.ru-2] 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 "Катастрофа Ил-18В Туркменского управления ГВФ в а/п Ашхабад". airdisaster.ru. Archived from the original on 2013-01-22. Retrieved 2013-04-27.

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