Azerbaijan Airlines Flight 217 was a scheduled passenger flight between

Baku Baku (, ; az, Bakı ) is the capital and largest city of Azerbaijan, as well as the largest city on the Caspian Sea and of the Caucasus region. Baku is located below sea level, which makes it the lowest lying national capital in the world a ...

and Aktau, Kazakhstan that crashed into the Caspian Sea at ca. 22:40 on 23 December 2005. The flight was operated by an Antonov An-140.

Crash

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. Passengers included Azerbaijanis,

Kazakhs The Kazakhs (also spelled Qazaqs; Kazakh: , , , , , ; the English name is transliterated from Russian; russian: казахи) are a Turkic-speaking ethnic group native to northern parts of Central Asia, chiefly Kazakhstan, but also parts o ...

, Iranians, Uzbeks and some from Western Europe nations.

Aftermath

Investigations from the

Kharkov State Aircraft Manufacturing Company Kharkiv State Aircraft Manufacturing Company or Kharkiv Aviation Factory (KSAMC or KhAZ), (Ukrainian: Ха́рківське держа́вне авіаці́йне виробни́че підприємс́тво) is a Ukrainian aircraft manufactu ...

have discovered that three independent gyroscopes were not providing stabilised heading and altitude performance information to the crew early in the flight.Kaminski-Morrow, David.
Crashed An-140 had gyro failure
" '' Flight International''. 10 January 2006. Retrieved on 14 June 2012. Following the accident, Azerbaijan Airlines grounded the remaining Antonov An-140's and cancelled any future plans of acquiring more of the Ukrainian-built aircraft.

References

External links

Aviation-Safety.net
2005 disasters in Europe 2005 in Azerbaijan Aviation accidents and incidents in 2005 Accidents and incidents involving the Antonov An-140 Airliner accidents and incidents involving controlled flight into terrain Aviation accidents and incidents in Azerbaijan December 2005 events in Asia {{aviation-accident-stub