Azerbaijan Airlines Flight A-56 was a scheduled domestic passenger flight from Nakhchivan to

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 an ...

operated by

Azerbaijan Airlines Azerbaijan (, ; az, Azərbaycan ), officially the Republic of Azerbaijan, , also sometimes officially called the Azerbaijan Republic is a transcontinental country located at the boundary of Eastern Europe and Western Asia. It is a part of th ...

which crashed on 5 December 1995, killing 52 people. The aircraft servicing the flight, a Tupolev Tu-134B-3, experienced engine failure while

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. The pilots performed a

forced landing A forced landing is a landing by an aircraft made under factors outside the pilot's control, such as the failure of engines, systems, components, or weather which makes continued flight impossible. For a full description of these, see article on ' ...

that required a sharp right turn to avoid an apartment block. The aircraft crashed in the south-western outskirts of Nakhchivan, from the airport runway. The crash became Azerbaijan Airlines' deadliest accident. The airline no longer operates the Tu-134.

Aircraft

The Tu-134B-3 involved in the accident, (c/n 63383), was manufactured on 28 August 1980 and was powered by two

Soloviev D-30 The Soloviev D-30 (now the Aviadvigatel PS-30) is a Soviet two-shaft low-bypass turbofan engine, officially referred to as a "bypass turbojet". It is probably the single most important turbofan engine developed in the Soviet Union. Development o ...

turbofan engines. The aircraft had flown 27,500 hours of its 35,000 flight hour life before the crash, was last serviced on 25 July 1995, and an unspecified repair was carried out on 30 March 1993. The engines had operated roughly 16,000 hours out of their assigned 18,000 hour life and were last serviced on 27 November 1995. The no. 1 (left) engine had undergone eight unspecified repairs and the no. 2 (right) five unspecified repairs before the crash.

Crash

The aircraft took off from Nakhchivan at 17:52 local time. At an altitude of and an

airspeed In aviation, airspeed is the speed of an aircraft relative to the air. Among the common conventions for qualifying airspeed are: * Indicated airspeed ("IAS"), what is read on an airspeed gauge connected to a Pitot-static system; * Calibrated ...

of , the no. 1 engine failed. The

co-pilot In aviation, the first officer (FO), also called co-pilot, is the pilot who is second-in-command of the aircraft to the captain, who is the legal commander. In the event of incapacitation of the captain, the first officer will assume command of ...

Sergey Kuliyev, who was at the controls, responded by countering the left

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, but five seconds later the

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 m ...

Alexander Sokolov reported, in error, that the no. 2 engine had failed. The

captain Captain is a title, an appellative for the commanding officer of a military unit; the supreme leader of a navy ship, merchant ship, aeroplane, spacecraft, or other vessel; or the commander of a port, fire or police department, election precinct, e ...

Eduard Hasanov took over control of the aircraft. However, because the co-pilot had countered the left bank, the captain did not have the sensory information which could have alerted him that it was the no. 1 engine that had failed. The aircraft continued to climb. The captain then ordered the no. 2 engine to be shut down. The flight engineer retarded the right

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and noticed that the power on the working engine was decreasing, he then pushed the no. 2 throttle back to full power, but the no. 2 engine had already stopped. Eight seconds later, the flight engineer reported that both engines had failed. The aircraft climbed to an altitude of , while the speed had decreased to . The captain decided to make an emergency landing, but encountered an apartment block and made a sharp right turn to avoid it. The aircraft crashed into a field with a 37-degree right bank and a

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of . Thirty people out of eighty-two on-board survived the accident (twenty-six passengers and four crew members).

Investigation

A joint investigation by the Russian

Interstate Aviation Committee The Interstate Aviation Committee (IAC; russian: Межгосударственный авиационный комитет, МАК) is an executive body of the Civil Aviation and Airspace Use Council of the Commonwealth of Independent States ( ...

, aircraft manufacturer, engine manufacturer and Azerbaijani Ministry of National Security was launched. Azerbaijan Airlines believed defective spare parts caused the crash. The joint investigation commission found that vibration caused the nuts on the engine mounts to loosen and fall off. This caused the engine

turbine A turbine ( or ) (from the Greek , ''tyrbē'', or Latin ''turbo'', meaning vortex) is a rotary mechanical device that extracts energy from a fluid flow and converts it into useful work. The work produced by a turbine can be used for generating ...

s to shift and become damaged, leading to the crash. Azerbaijan Airlines deputy head Nazim Javadov, however, said the use of the defective parts for repairs was permitted by the engine manufacturer, Russian company

Perm Motors Perm or PERM may refer to: Places *Perm, Russia, a city in Russia ** Permsky District, the district **Perm Krai, a federal subject of Russia since 2005 **Perm Oblast, a former federal subject of Russia 1938–2005 **Perm Governorate, an administra ...

References

{{Aviation accidents and incidents in 1995 1995 in Azerbaijan December 1995 events in Asia Aviation accidents and incidents in 1995 Accidents and incidents involving the Tupolev Tu-134 Airliner accidents and incidents caused by engine failure Aviation accidents and incidents in Azerbaijan Airliner accidents and incidents caused by wrong engine shutdown History of Nakhchivan

Aircraft

Crash

Investigation

See also

References