Azerbaijan Airlines Flight 217

Azerbaijan Airlines Flight 217

4K-AZ48, the aircraft involved in the accident
Accident
Date	23 December 2005 (2005-12-23)
Summary	Controlled flight into water
Site	Caspian Sea, near Nardaran, Azerbaijan 40°35′22.1″N50°02′03.2″E / 40.589472°N 50.034222°E / 40.589472; 50.034222
Aircraft
Aircraft type	Antonov An-140-100
Aircraft name	Yevlakh
Operator	Azerbaijan Airlines
IATA flight No.	J2217
ICAO flight No.	AHY217
Call sign	AZAL 217
Registration	4K-AZ48
Flight origin	Baku Airport, Azerbaijan
Destination	Aktau Airport, Kazakhstan
Occupants	23
Passengers	18
Crew	5
Fatalities	23
Survivors	0

Azerbaijan Airlines Flight 217 was a scheduled passenger flight between Baku and Aktau, Kazakhstan that crashed into the Caspian Sea at ca. 22:40 on 23 December 2005. ^[1] The flight was operated by an Antonov An-140.

Accident

Around five minutes after a night-time departure from Baku Airport, the crew reported a systems failure. Heading over the Caspian Sea at night without flight instruments made it difficult for the crew to judge their flight parameters. Whilst attempting to return to Baku, the aircraft crashed shortly afterwards on the shore of the Caspian Sea, killing all passengers and crew. ^{[2] [3]}

Aftermath

Azerbaijan Airlines suspended flights operated by its remaining Antonov An-140 and cancelled plans to order two more of the same aircraft. ^[4]

Investigation

Investigations from the Kharkiv State Aircraft Manufacturing Company found that during the climb, the aircraft's three independent gyroscopes had failed and were not providing stabilised pitch, roll, heading, and altitude performance information to the crew. ^{[5] [6]}

References

1. "Azerbaijan plane crash 'kills 23'". BBC News. 23 December 2005. Retrieved 27 October 2019.
2. Ranter, Harro. "ASN Aircraft accident Antonov An-140-100 4K-AZ48 Nardaran". Aviation Safety Network. Retrieved 27 October 2019.
3. Chivers, C. J. (25 December 2005). "Plane Crashes Into Caspian; 23 Are Killed". The New York Times. ISSN   0362-4331 . Retrieved 27 October 2019.
4. "Azerbaijan airlines suspends flights". The Associated Press . China Daily. 27 December 2005. Archived from the original on 27 December 2005. Retrieved 4 April 2025.
5. Kaminski-Morrow, David (10 January 2006). "Crashed An-140 had gyro failure". Flight International . Retrieved 14 June 2012.
6. Imai, Shigeru; Blasch, Erik; Galli, Alessandro; Zhu, Wennan; Lee, Frederick; Varela, Carlos A. (April 2017). "Airplane flight safety using error-tolerant data stream processing". Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers . 32 (4): 4–17. doi:10.1109/MAES.2017.150242. S2CID   17496470 . Retrieved 4 April 2025.

External links

• Azerbaijan portal
• Aviation portal

• Aviation-Safety.net