Accident of IL-14 near Baku

IL-14P with the serial number 146000310 and serial number 03-10 would be produced by the Znamya Truda plant ( Moscow ) on May 19, 1956 , after which it was sold to the Main Directorate of the Civil Air Fleet . The airliner received the USSR-L1772 flight number and was sent to the Baku squadron of the Azerbaijan Territorial Administration of the Civil Air Fleet. In 1959, due to re-registration, the tail number changed to CCCP-61772. In total, at the time of the accident, the aircraft had an operating time of 16,257 flight hours ^[1] .

The crew of the 107th flight detachment consisted of 5 people ^[2] :

• Commander (FAC) - Kamelin Grom Nikolaevich
• Co - pilot - Viktor Sukhenko
• Bortmekhanik - Mitrofanov Valery Georgievich
• Bortradist - Khromykhin Yuri Sergeevich
• Stewardess - Bogdanova Anna Alexandrovna

The crew was supposed to carry out passenger flight 2723 from Baku to Makhachkala . At that time, there was stormy weather in Baku, the sky was completely cloudy with the bottom edge at an altitude of 140-200 meters, moderate to heavy rain was falling, wind speed in gusts was 16-20 m / s, and horizontal visibility was 2-4 kilometers . At 07:42, Moscow time, with 5 crew members and 28 passengers aboard the IL-14, flew from Bina Airport ^[2] .

But 12 minutes after departure, when the plane flew at an altitude of 1,500 meters, the crew reported problems in the operation of the engines. Having speculated that the spark plugs were wet , Commander Kamelin reported that the plane was returning to Baku. A U-turn was made and the approach began to be carried out, and soon it was reported from the side that the number of revolutions on the left engine had dropped and there was a strong shaking. At 07:59, the crew reported that the temperature had dropped in both engines, and at 08:02 it was reported that the flight altitude was 200 meters. In fact, due to poor visibility, the pilots did not see the airport and flew by, now finding themselves over the Caspian Sea south of the Absheron Peninsula . 5 seconds after the report on the flight altitude of 200 meters, the commander filed SOS and transmitted: I put it in the water . This was the last broadcast from flight 2723 ^[2] .

The warships of the Caspian flotilla were attracted to search for IL-14, but they could not find the plane. All 33 people on board were declared dead ^[2] .

A few months later, when naval specialists were looking for another sunken object, they unexpectedly stumbled aboard 61772. The liner sank at a depth of 23 meters, 18-20 kilometers south of the island of Nargen . With the help of a floating crane Il-14 and a significant part of the bodies of the dead were removed to the surface. As it was possible to determine, the fuselage relatively survived, which indicated that the plane crashed into the water on a gentle trajectory ^[2] .

Based on reports from the crew, the likely cause of the disaster was engine failure, due to which, coupled with stormy weather, it was no longer possible to continue the flight. Since the plane was not found at the time the investigation was completed, the commission concluded that “the cause of the engine failure is unknown” ^[2] .