1965 Aeroflot Antonov An-24 crash

The 1965 Khanty-Mansiysk An-24 crash was an accident that occurred on 20 March 1965 at the Khanty-Mansiysk Airport, involving an Antonov An-24 operated by Aeroflot, resulting in the deaths of 43 people.

1965 Khanty-Mansiysk An-24 crash

An An-24 from Aeroflot
Accident
Date	20 March 1965 (1965-03-20)
Summary	Undetermined
Site	Khanty-Mansiysk Airport
Aircraft
Aircraft type	Antonov An-24
Operator	Aeroflot
Registration	CCCP-46764
Flight origin	Plekhanovo Airport, Tyumen
Destination	Khanty-Mansiysk Airport
Occupants	47
Passengers	42
Crew	5
Fatalities	43
Survivors	4

Aircraft

The Antonov An-24, tail number 46764 (factory number 47301301), was manufactured by the Antonov Serial Production Plant on 30 September 1964. At the time of the crash, the aircraft had accumulated a total of 580 flight hours and 573 landings.

Accident

The aircraft was operating a flight from Tyumen to Khanty-Mansiysk. It was piloted by a crew from the 120th flight squadron, which included the commander Vladimir Tikhonovich Kozlovskikh, the co-pilot Leonid Petrovich Tugarin, the navigator-radio operator Aleksandr Mitrofanovich Khoroshaev, and the flight engineer Mikhail Semenovich Syomin. The cabin crew consisted of the flight attendant Yuriy Ivanovich Morozov. There were 42 passengers on board.

Weather conditions were simple, with continuous stratocumulus clouds at 400 meters and visibility of 10 kilometers. While at an altitude of 5 400 meters, the crew began descending first to 3 000 meters, then 600, and finally 300 meters. The crew then proceeded with a visual approach for landing, with a right turn on a magnetic heading of 38°. At an altitude of 10 meters, the An-24 "sank," causing it to land in the snow short of the runway. After running for 7 meters on the snow, it collided at full speed with a snow embankment at the end of the runway and began to break apart. According to some reports, one of the wings broke off, causing fuel from the wing tanks to flood the cabin. A fire erupted. All those in the cabin (42 passengers and the flight attendant) died from poisoning by toxic smoke from burning plastic cabin linings.

Causes

The commission investigating the incident was unable to determine the exact cause. There were only a few theories:

1. A possible error in piloting technique, manifested in an inaccurate determination of the height to begin leveling off, resulting in a delayed initiation of the landing flare, causing the aircraft to land short of the runway.
2. The possible occurrence of negative thrust by the propellers when the throttle levers were set near the crossover gate due to improper engine adjustment or when the throttle levers were moved past the crossover gate.
3. A change in the center of gravity due to passengers moving around the cabin as a fire broke out, possibly due to smoking.

Representatives of the Ministry of Aviation Industry expressed a dissenting opinion, disagreeing with theories 2 and 3.