Accident | |
---|---|
Date | 16 January 1987 |
Summary | Wake turbulence |
Site | Tashkent Airport, Tashkent, Uzbekistan |
Aircraft | |
Aircraft type | Yakovlev Yak-40 |
Operator | Aeroflot |
Registration | CCCP-87618 |
Flight origin | Tashkent Airport, Soviet Uzbekistan, USSR |
Destination | Shahrisabz, Soviet Uzbekistan, USSR |
Occupants | 9 |
Passengers | 5 |
Crew | 4 |
Fatalities | 9 |
Survivors | 0 |
Aeroflot Flight 505 crashed just after takeoff in Tashkent on 16 January 1987. Flight 505 was an early morning flight from Tashkent to Shahrisabz, both in the Uzbek Soviet Socialist Republic, now the Republic of Uzbekistan. The flight took off just one minute and 28 seconds after an Ilyushin Il-76, thus encountering its wake vortex. The Yakovlev Yak-40 then banked sharply to the right, struck the ground, and caught fire. All 9 people on board died. [1] [2]
The aircraft involved, a Yakovlev Yak-40, was registered to Aeroflot as CCCP-87618. At the time of the accident the aircraft had sustained 17,132 flight hours and 20,927 cycles (one cycle equals one takeoff and landing). [2]
The crew consisted of the following: [3]
The plane was scheduled to ferry cargo from Tashkent to Shakhrisabz. On board were 1,200 kilograms of mail and 35 kilograms of personal luggage, along with four passengers seated in the cabin. Takeoff weight was 14.4 tons, within the acceptable range. The crew was in a hurry to depart because the cargo was not loaded until 6:00 local time and they were scheduled to depart Tashkent at 5:55; hence the crew took less than a minute to complete the preflight checklist instead of the usual five minutes. They proceeded to start taxiing on taxiway three to Runway 8L. At 6:09:40 the Il-76 (CCCP-76482) took off from the runway. Immediately they contacted the control tower and requested clearance for takeoff. After receiving permission to taxi onto the runway, and at 6:10:58 they took off without explicit permission to take off, in violation of procedure. The crew put the engines to full power accelerating at 124.2 knots; but at 6:11:04 when the aircraft was no more than 20 meters off the ground it started to bank sharply to the right and at 6:11:15 it crashed into the ground, killing all nine people aboard. [4]
The Yak-40 took off 1 minute and 28 seconds after an Ilyushin IL-76. When investigating the causes of the disaster the commission found that despite the IL-76's position it still would have left wake turbulence. The wind was only 1 mph, leading to the conclusion that the behavior of the aircraft Yak-40 can be explained only by hitting the wake turbulence of a much heavier Il-76 taking off from the same runway in just 1 minute 15 seconds before the Yak-40. Tashkent Airport had a minimum takeoff interval of only one minute, regardless of aircraft type, leading to the relatively small Yak-40 quickly losing control and crashing upon encountering the wake vortex. [4]
Wake turbulence is a disturbance in the atmosphere that forms behind an aircraft as it passes through the air. It includes various components, the most important of which are wingtip vortices and jetwash. Jetwash refers to the rapidly moving gases expelled from a jet engine; it is extremely turbulent, but of short duration. Wingtip vortices, however, are much more stable and can remain in the air for up to three minutes after the passage of an aircraft. It is therefore not true turbulence in the aerodynamic sense, as true turbulence would be chaotic. Instead, it refers to the similarity to atmospheric turbulence as experienced by an aircraft flying through this region of disturbed air.
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Following is a list of accidents and incidents experienced by Aeroflot during the 1980s. The deadliest accident the carrier experienced in this decade occurred in July 1985, when Flight 7425, a Tupolev Tu-154B-2, stalled en route and crashed near Uchkuduk, then located in the Uzbek SSR, claiming the lives of all 200 occupants aboard the aircraft. The second deadliest accident the company went through in the decade took place in October 1984, when Flight 3352, a Tupolev Tu-154B-1, hit snowploughs upon landing at Omsk Airport, killing 174 of 179 people on board plus four people on the ground. Both accidents combined left a death toll of 378 casualties and involved a Tupolev Tu-154, ranking as the worst ones involving the type, as of February 2012.
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Aeroflot Flight 8641 was a Yakovlev Yak-42 airliner on a domestic scheduled passenger flight from Leningrad to Kyiv. On 28 June 1982, the flight crashed south of Mozyr, Belorussian SSR, killing all 132 people on board. The accident was both the first and deadliest crash of a Yakovlev Yak-42, and remains the deadliest aviation accident in Belarus.
Aeroflot Flight 528 was a regular commercial flight from Odessa to Berdyansk that crashed while attempting to land in poor weather conditions.
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 343 was a passenger flight from Moscow-Sheremetyevo Airport to Jorge Chávez International Airport, on a stopover at Luxembourg-Findel International Airport, that veered off the runway on 29 September 1982, fatally injuring seven occupants. The Ilyushin Il-62M operating the flight suffered a mechanical failure.
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.
Aeroflot Flight U-45 was a passenger flight operated by an Ilyushin Il-18 that crashed during the approach to Samarkand on Friday, 6 February 1970, resulting in the death of 92 of the 106 people on board. An investigation revealed the aircraft went below the minimum obstacle clearance altitude (MOCA) during approach to Samarkand International Airport.
Aeroflot Flight 2 was a regularly scheduled passenger flight operated by Aeroflot from Vitim Airport in the Sakha Republic to Irkutsk International Airport near Irkutsk. On 20 July 1977, the Avia 14 operating this flight crashed into trees outside the airport shortly after takeoff. Thirty-three passengers and all six crewmembers were killed, while one passenger survived.
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.