The crash of Li-2 near Ermakovsky

Li-2 with serial number 23442810 and serial number 428-10 was released by the Tashkent Aviation Plant in 1952 and transferred to the Main Directorate of the Civil Air Fleet . On September 24, the airliner received the USSR-L4971 onboard number and was sent to the 132nd (Tuvinian) squadron of the Krasnoyarsk Civil Air Fleet Administration. In 1959, re-registration was carried out, as a result of which the tail number changed to CCCP-54971. The total operating time of the aircraft was 17,098 hours ^[1] .

• The commander of the aircraft - Sandrukhin Dmitry Fedorovich
• Co - pilot - Babich Nikolay Ilyich
• Bortradist - Vladimir Ivanov
• Bortmekhanik - Shcherban Nikolay Ivanovich

The aircraft performed passenger flights along the route Kyzyl - Abakan - Kyzyl. At 05:10 ^{[* 1]} Li-2 took off from the Kyzyl airport and landed at 06:55 at the Abakan airport . This part of the flight passed without deviations, after which the aircraft began to prepare for the return flight - 542. 24 adult passengers and 3 children boarded the plane, while the take-off weight at the time of takeoff was 10 946 kg , which is 246 kg more than the established although the alignment was within. At 07:04, flight 542 departed from Abakan. According to the weather forecast, the route was expected to have medium and upper cloud cover, moderate bumpiness, and fog in the lowlands in the early morning. In fact, the weather was clear, there was no talk and a slight northwest wind was blowing. At 07:23 from the plane, they reported on the occupation of a train of 3000 meters. At 07:41 the crew informed the dispatcher in Krasnoyarsk : 3000 visually , this [pass] pass, 280 track [speed], Roman Kyzyl on the way . In response, the dispatcher instructed to switch to communication with the Kyzyl airport. The crew confirmed the receipt of information, which was the last broadcast from the plane. After that, flight 542 did not get in touch and did not answer calls. At 07:45, following the course of 240 ° (110 ° to the highway) at a steep angle and with a left bank with a Li-2 slide at an altitude of 1740 meters, it crashed into a forested mountainside at high speed. The disaster occurred in the Ermakovsky district of the Krasnoyarsk Territory on one of the mountains (height about 1820 meters) of the Aradan Range between the Nistaforovka and Iosifovka rivers. All people on board (31 people) died ^[2] .

A layer of snow up to 2-3 meters thick prevented the study of the accident site, so investigators had to wait until it melted. Finally, on June 1, from the air 600 meters north of the crash site, individual fragments were discovered, including the aileron and the end fairing of the left wing, rudder and the upper part of the keel . 300 meters from the main place of the fall, a part of the left end fairing was found. For the study of debris, the following picture was established. After the passage of the pass, the airliner fell into a descending turbulent air flow and began to lose altitude. Pilots, acting on the controls, tried to fix it when, due to the high aerodynamic loads that arose, the end fairing of the left wing collapsed. In this case, the end fairing was deformed, but did not separate. Separation of a part of the left wing structure immediately led to an imbalance of lift, so the aircraft turned sharply along the lifting axis to the left, while lateral aerodynamic overloads arose, as a result of which the rudder and part of the keel were separated. The airliner lost control and fell into a fall ^[2] .

During the investigation, it was noted that there were no signs of damage on the wing, including corrosion and fatigue, which could reduce the structural strength. The metal structure in its quality also met the requirements. But at the same time, earlier in the course of numerous static tests, as well as during the operation of Li-2 aircraft, no damage to the wing was detected in the place where it happened in the case of flight 54971. Only after the disaster near Ramensky on March 25, 1966 , which occurred on for the same reason, the commission came to the conclusion that on Li-2 aircraft, the design of the end fairing of the left wing is not sufficiently stable ^[2] .

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