Accident of IL-62 in Havana

Il-62M with tail number CU-T1281 (serial number 3850453, serial number 50-05) was produced by the Kazan Aircraft Plant approximately in the third quarter of 1988 and was sold to the Cuban airline Cubana de Aviación before the end of that year ^[2] . Thus, at the time of the crash, the airliner was no more than a year old; his flight time was about 1300 hours ^[3] .

The airliner had to carry out international charter flight 9646 on the route Havana - Cologne - Milan . He piloted his crew, whose commander (FAC) was Armando Oliveros ( Spanish: Armando Oliveros ). It was a fairly experienced pilot who had 29 years of flying experience behind him, his flight time was 13 thousand hours, of which 476 flight hours were on Il-62. In total, the crew consisted of 11 people ^{[1] [3]} . There were 115 passengers in the cabin, mainly Italian tourists ^[4] .

A tropical storm was approaching the airport, which was already 8-10 kilometers away, while the wind speed at the airport reached 30-40 km / h and it was raining heavily . Under these weather conditions, Commander Oliveros decided to take off. At about 19:00 the plane took off from the strip and began to climb. But as soon as he reached 53 meters, he immediately fell into a downward stream and began to decline. To increase the translational speed, the crew reduced the angle of inclination of the flaps from 30 ° to 15 °, but this action only reduced the lifting force of the wing and led to an even faster decrease. Having lost altitude, the Il-62 crashed into a navigational beacon, then hit a small hill, jumped from the impact, then flew another 250 meters and fell on the outskirts of Havana, destroying several dozen houses ^[3] .

Ambulances drove to the crash site, the police quickly cordoned off the area ^[4] . At the crash site, the only survivor was discovered - a 22-year-old man. However, after 8 days, on September 11, he died from his injuries. Thus, all 126 people on board died. In addition, 45 people died on the earth. The total number of victims of this plane crash is 171 people, which in 2013 makes it the largest in the history of Cuba, bypassing the catastrophe of the Soviet Il-62 in 1977 and the third among those that happened with Il-62 (after the catastrophes in Warsaw and near Moscow ) ^{[1 ]} .

The culprit of the disaster, the investigators called the crew commander, who decided to take off in worsening weather conditions, while underestimating the danger. According to the commission, at the time of takeoff, the wind speed could reach 100 km / h, which in turn led to a loss of lift. The crew’s decision to clean the wing mechanization at that moment only further complicated the current situation ^[3] .

• The crash of the Boeing 737 near São José do Xingu - occurred on the same day.