Aeroflot Flight 1491 was a scheduled domestic passenger flight from Moscow-Vnukovo Airport to

Kharkiv Airport Kharkiv International Airport ( uk, Міжнародний аеропорт "Харків") is an airport located in Kharkiv, Ukraine. It is the main airfield serving the city of Kharkiv, Ukraine's second largest city. It is located to the sout ...

in the

USSR The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nationa ...

that crashed on 18 May 1972 while descending to land in

Kharkiv Kharkiv ( uk, wikt:Харків, Ха́рків, ), also known as Kharkov (russian: Харькoв, ), is the second-largest List of cities in Ukraine, city and List of hromadas of Ukraine, municipality in Ukraine.Antonov An-10 The Antonov An-10 Ukraina ( ua, Антонов Ан-10 Україна, , Ukraine; NATO reporting name: Cat) is a four-engined turboprop passenger transport aircraft designed in the Soviet Union. Design and development Development of a four-en ...

Aircraft and crew

Aircraft

Antonov An-10A, registration СССР-11215 (factory number 0402502, MSN 25-02), was manufactured at the Voronezh Aviation Plant on 3 February 1961. On 7 February 1961 it was delivered to

Aeroflot PJSC AeroflotRussian Airlines (russian: ПАО "Аэрофло́т — Росси́йские авиали́нии", ), commonly known as Aeroflot ( or ; russian: Аэрофлот, , ), is the flag carrier and the largest airline of Russia. The ...

's Kharkiv division. It was equipped with 4 turboprop

Ivchenko AI-20 The Ivchenko AI-20 is a Soviet turboprop engine developed by the Ivchenko design bureau in the 1950s. It has been built in large numbers, serving as the powerplant for both the Antonov An-12 transport and the Ilyushin Il-18 airliner. Design and d ...

engines. At the time of the accident the aircraft accumulated 11,105 flight cycles and 15,483 flying hours.

Crew

The flight crew responsible flying the aircraft was from the 87th Flight Squad (Kharkiv United Squadron). Captain Vladimir Vasiltsov was in charge of this flight; first officer Andrei Burkovskii,

navigator A navigator is the person on board a ship or aircraft responsible for its navigation.Grierson, MikeAviation History—Demise of the Flight Navigator FrancoFlyers.org website, October 14, 2008. Retrieved August 31, 2014. The navigator's primar ...

Aleksandr Grishko,

flight engineer A flight engineer (FE), also sometimes called an air engineer, is the member of an aircraft's flight crew who monitors and operates its complex aircraft systems. In the early era of aviation, the position was sometimes referred to as the "air me ...

Vladimir Shchokin, and

radio operator A radio operator (also, formerly, wireless operator in British and Commonwealth English) is a person who is responsible for the operations of a radio system. The profession of radio operator has become largely obsolete with the automation of ra ...

Konstantin Peresechanskii were also in the flight deck.

Synopsis

Flight 1491 took off from Moscow-Vnukovo Airport at 10:39 en route to

Kharkiv Kharkiv ( uk, wikt:Харків, Ха́рків, ), also known as Kharkov (russian: Харькoв, ), is the second-largest List of cities in Ukraine, city and List of hromadas of Ukraine, municipality in Ukraine.Ukrainian SSR The Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic ( uk, Украї́нська Радя́нська Соціалісти́чна Респу́бліка, ; russian: Украи́нская Сове́тская Социалисти́ческая Респ ...

. While descending from its cruising altitude of to an altitude of , the

Antonov An-10 The Antonov An-10 Ukraina ( ua, Антонов Ан-10 Україна, , Ukraine; NATO reporting name: Cat) is a four-engined turboprop passenger transport aircraft designed in the Soviet Union. Design and development Development of a four-en ...

suffered structural failure resulting in the separation of both wings. The

fuselage The fuselage (; from the French ''fuselé'' "spindle-shaped") is an aircraft's main body section. It holds crew, passengers, or cargo. In single-engine aircraft, it will usually contain an engine as well, although in some amphibious aircraft t ...

then plunged into a wooded area, killing all 114 passengers and 8 crew on board the aircraft.

Aftermath

Pravda ''Pravda'' ( rus, Правда, p=ˈpravdə, a=Ru-правда.ogg, "Truth") is a Russian broadsheet newspaper, and was the official newspaper of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, when it was one of the most influential papers in the co ...

'' reported on the crash of Flight 1491 shortly after it happened. At the time, it was unusual in the Soviet Union for there to be press reports on domestic air crashes. The probable cause of the crash was determined to be the center wing section failing due to a fatigue crack in the lower central wing panel. Following this accident, Aeroflot ceased the operation of An-10.

References

External links

Aeroflot Flight 1491 at planecrashinfo.com
{{Aviation accidents and incidents in Russia Aviation accidents and incidents in 1972 1972 in the Soviet Union Aviation accidents and incidents in the Soviet Union Airliner accidents and incidents caused by in-flight structural failure Accidents and incidents involving the Antonov An-10

1491 Year 1491 (Roman numerals, MCDXCI) was a common year starting on Saturday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. Events January–December * January 2 – Alain I of Albret signs the Treaty of Moulins with C ...

May 1972 events in Europe Aviation accidents and incidents in Ukraine History of Kharkiv 1972 in Ukraine