Accident of IL-12 in Karaganda

IL-12P with tail number USSR-L1803 (serial number 93013302, serial 33-02) was launched by the Znamya Truda MMZ on March 31, 1949 and was soon transferred to the Main Directorate of the Civil Air Fleet , which sent it to the 25th transport air squad of the Kazakh Civil Air Fleet Management. In total, at the time of the crash, the airliner had 953 hours of flight ^{[1] [2]} .

The plane performed a passenger flight from Alma-Ata , and its crew consisting of a commander (spacecraft) pilotedV.A. Alexandrov , co-pilot N.A. Fedulov , navigator B. Yu. Kobets , flight engineer I.V. Tregubova and flight attendant A.P. Gerasimov . The stewardess worked in the cabin Koptseva. At 04:50, the IL-12 made an intermediate landing at the Karaganda airport for refueling, after which at 05:36 it took off at a 210 ° magnetic course. On board were 19 passengers. The weather was clear, there were separate layered cumulus clouds , visibility was about 30 kilometers ^[1] .

Having risen to a height of 150 meters, the crew began to make a right turn to the 285 ° course, when, according to witnesses, at 05:38 sharp exhausts appeared on the left engine. Then at 05:42 the crew reported to the dispatcher about the failure of the left engine and about the intention to return to the airport. The dispatcher gave permission to land with a straight line at a 30 ° course, after which the crew performed a right turn to a 110 ° course and headed to the airfield. Since the elevator was 67 meters high in front of the flight path, the crew completed a right turn and now flew at an angle of 80 ° to the extended axis of the runway . At the same time, the aircraft flew at an altitude of 100 meters with a right bank and with some skidding of the tail ^[1] .

Crossing the extended runway axis at an altitude of 50-70 meters, the commander began to remove the right roll by turning to the left, and also released the chassis . But the Il-12 suddenly suddenly turned sharply to the left, and at a loss went into a tailspin , after which at 05:44 at an angle of 60 ° it crashed with the right wing plane and the right engine into the ground and exploded. All 25 people on board died ^[1] .

As the commission found out, on July 27 this same aircraft underwent 100-hour scheduled maintenance at the base in Almaty. Then, on July 29, a flyby was performed, which was made by the same crew as in the crashed flight. In this case, before takeoff, the left engine stopped, and then after a while it was restarted. However, the crew hid this technical problem. The reasons why the engine stopped were not clarified ^[1] .

According to the conclusions of the commission, the following reasons led to the disaster ^[1] :

1. Left engine failure for an unknown reason.
2. Poor flight management at Karaganda airport.
3. A mistake in the piloting technique due to the insufficient training of the crew commander for flying on one engine (turning in the direction of the failed engine and releasing the chassis).

According to the commission, the commander made the right decision to land directly. But when the dispatcher gave permission to the pilots to land at a 30 ° course and with a straight line, this only created confusion and significantly aggravated the situation. Moreover, the large size of the Karaganda aerodrome with even approach lanes and clear weather allowed the crew to make a safe landing with one engine running. Concomitant reasons were the lack of qualified help from the airport commandant, who delegated the flight control to an insufficiently qualified dispatcher, as well as poor control over the state of the materiel, since they managed to hide the fact that the engine stopped before flying over ^[1] .