The crash of Tu-154 near Malabo

Tu-154A (registration number CCCP-85102, serial number 75A-102, serial 0102) was produced by the Kuibyshev Aviation Plant (KuAPO) on April 9, 1975 and was transferred to Aeroflot Airlines (TsUMVS, Sheremetyevsky OJSC) 21 days later (April 30). It is equipped with three NK-8-2U turbofan engines manufactured by KMPO . On the day of the disaster, it completed 1069 take-off and landing cycles and flew 2119 hours ^[1] .

The aircraft was controlled by an experienced crew, its composition was as follows:

• The commander of the aircraft (FAC) is Vladimir Fedorovich Ivchenko.
• The co - pilot is Alexander Nikolaevich Kuryanov.
• The navigator is Yuri Sergeyevich Ilyinsky.
• Navigator intern - Victor Kirillovich Pakulenko.
• Flight Engineer - Boris Fedorovich Bunchuk.
• The bortradist is Nikolai Petrovich Konovalov.

Four cabin crew worked in the cabin :

• Alexander Fedorovich Shirokov - senior flight attendant,
• Lidia Nesterovna Evstigneeva,
• Tatyana Vasilievna Mikulik,
• Svetlana Vladimirovna Ruzakova.

In total, there were 45 people on board - 35 passengers and 10 crew members.

At 05:52 UTC, SU-418 took off from Luanda Airport and soon took FL320 (9.8 km) at a speed of 580 km / h. At 07:36, on the way to the first intermediate landing, the crew began descent with a vertical speed of 15-20 m / s, and at 07:38 they contacted the airport dispatcher and requested weather data. In response, the actual data was transmitted at 07:00 - visibility 9 kilometers, cloud cover 5/8 points 300 meters high, 7/8 points 3300 meters high, pressure 1014.5 mb, temperature 24 ° C. At 07:43, the plane descended to the level of 4200 meters, which the crew reported to the dispatcher, and also requested permission to land on runway No. 05. Permission was obtained, while the dispatcher reported a new pressure value of 1014.0 mb, and at the same time instructed to inform when the crew saw the runway. At 07: 47–07: 48 the crew contacted the airline’s operator in Moscow and announced that they intend to land in Malabo at 07:52. After that, flight 418 no longer got in touch with either the dispatcher or Moscow, and did not land at Malabo airport.

After the plane was declared missing, its search began, which were conducted both on the island itself and in the ocean. The aviation of the President of Equatorial Guinea was also involved. On June 6, a Soviet pilot on a personal Ka-26, Francisco Masias Nguema, finally discovered on the southern slope of the San Carlos volcano the crash site of a large airliner (coordinates ). Since the crash site was located in an impenetrable jungle, a ground search team did not reach him until June 18 and identified it in the wreckage of the Tu-154. At 07:48 on June 1, at a speed of 490 km / h and at an altitude of 750 meters above sea level, the airliner crashed into the gentle slope of the volcano covered with jungle and completely collapsed. The scatter area of ​​the debris was 380 by 200 meters. All 45 people on board died.

At that time it was the largest plane crash in the history of Equatorial Guinea (since 2005 - the second) ^[2] .

According to the interpretation of the flight recorders, from an altitude of 2500 meters the airliner descended with a vertical speed of 10-12 m / s and with a translational instrumental speed (Vpr) of 500 km / h. To change the magnetic course from 032 ° to 350 °, the plane made several left turns with a roll of up to 30 °. At 10:48:34 with an instrument speed of 490 km / h and a vertical speed of 7 m / s, the airliner crashed into Mount San Carlos. The landing gear and flaps were removed. Before the collision with the ground, all systems and aircraft engines worked normally.

According to the commission, the reference point for the island of Sao Tome flight 418 was two minutes earlier, but the crew did not correct the estimated time of arrival. Besides:

1. The flight instructions for Malabo Airport do not adequately cover the local meteorological, geographic and relief features of this region. The volcano of San Carlos was generally absent on flight charts;
2. Low level of controllers Malabo - three out of four controllers did not have access to air traffic control due to education in 4 classes;
3. Due to the early arrival, according to the schedule, there is no forecast at the departure airports and the actual weather at Malabo airport, which was not yet operational at the time of departure. This airport was open only in the daytime from 08:00 to 18:00 hours and the crews decided to take off according to the weather forecast for the airport Douala ( Cameroon ).

At the same time, it was recognized that the low qualification of air traffic controllers could not cause a disaster, since the crew received all the necessary information. Due to the lack of witnesses and due to the complete destruction of the aircraft, the causes of the crash of flight SU-418 could not be precisely determined. There are only assumptions:

• external influence was exerted on the plane and crew, although there are no data on the flight of unmanned vehicles in this region;
• premature descent of the aircraft and its deviation to the right of the line of the path due to an error in the directional system, due to the likely failure of the radar (its work by flight recorders was not recorded), because of which the crew lost the ability to determine the position of the aircraft relative to the island.

Since there was no actual monitoring of the weather in the airport area, it is likely that the plane with the failed navigation system entered the layer of powerful clouds located on the leeward side of the mountains and crashed into the mountainside in conditions of insufficient visibility at an altitude of 750 meters.

• The crash of the Tu-154A TSUMVS in Equatorial Guinea (board the USSR-85102), June 1, 1976.