Accident Let L-410 near Gelendzhik

Let L-410M Turbolet with registration number CCCP-67290 (serial number 781101, serial number 11-01) was released on October 31, 1978 by the Let factory in Czechoslovakia . The liner was handed over to the customer - the Ministry of Civil Aviation of the Soviet Union , which by November 21 sent it to the Sukhumi (297th) joint aviation unit of the Georgian Civil Aviation Administration. Passenger capacity was 16 seats. The total operating time of the side 67290 was 1895 hours and 3747 take-off-landing cycles ^{[1] [2]} .

• The aircraft commander - Digich Stepan Stepanovich
• Co - pilot - Victor Lutsenko

The aircraft performed a passenger flight G-96 from Novorossiysk to Batumi with an intermediate landing in Sukhumi . The flight to Sukhumi was supposed to take place in a hollow where, according to the weather forecast, heavy rain, layered cumulus and cumulonimbus clouds with gaps and a lower boundary of 300-500 meters were expected, the wind at a given height of 230 ° 50 km / h (southwest 14 m / s), visibility 4-6 kilometers. At 13:25 (12:25 Moscow time ) with 16 passengers and 2 crew members on board, flight 96 departed from Novorossiysk Airport ^[1] .

After taking off and climbing, the crew reported to the dispatch center Novorossiysk about the passage of the Kabardinka beam, as well as occupying a height of 450 meters. After that, at 13:28, the pilots contacted the dispatch center of local airlines in Gelendzhik . The dispatcher told them that they were 12 kilometers from Gelendzhik Airport in azimuth of 290 °, and also gave the conditions for entering the zone. After a minute (13:29), flight 96 diverged from the oncoming plane, after which the dispatcher asked the crew for their estimated time of departure from the zone. In response, they said from the plane that they expected to traverse the DPR of Dzhubga at 13:40. Then the dispatcher instructed to inform the exit of the zone, which the crew confirmed at 13:29:17. This was the last radio exchange with an airplane. According to the radar, before being removed 18 kilometers from the Gelendzhik airport, the airliner followed the route, after which it was closed by mountains ^[1] .

When the plane disappeared and did not arrive in Sukhumi, its search began. On the night of January 10 , that is, after two and a half days, a ground search team discovered 67290 on a mountain 365 meters high, 22 kilometers from Gelendzhik and near the village of Praskoveevka . Having dodged to the left of the route, the airliner flying at an altitude of 250 meters crashed into trees on a slope at 13:35 (12:35 Moscow time ), after which it fell to the ground, partially collapsed and burned down. All 18 people on board died ^[1] .

The investigation was complicated by the fact that there was no film cassette in the SARPP-12VM flight recorder. The fact is that there was no film at the air technical base of Babushera Airport (Sukhumi), therefore, in accordance with the instructions of the chief engineer of the Georgian Civil Aviation Administration, the aircraft was allowed to fly with an uncharged registrar. As for the barogram , it burned down in a fire ^[1] .

It was found that on the route the actual height of layered cumulus and cumulonimbus clouds was 700-1000 meters, there were separate clouds with a lower boundary of 400-500 meters, some mountain peaks were covered by clouds, visibility reached 10-15 kilometers and it was raining. In addition, the wind was actually 150-170 ° (southeast) with gusts of up to 12 m / s. Thus, the commission came to the following conclusion. The fact is that the calculated course on the traverse of Cape Idokopas was 129 °. But adjusted for the wind, which, according to the forecast, was supposed to be southwest, the course of the aircraft should have been already 136 °, that is, slightly to the right and shifted to the west. It is likely that the pilots headed just this course, not taking into account the actual drift and ground speed, otherwise they would have understood that the wind was actually blowing relative to them not from the right, but from the front. Because of this, the airliner actually flew parallel to the coast, dodging to the left of the highway, and somewhere in 10-12 kilometers from Gelendzhik flew into the clouds. Having flown in the clouds for a minute and a half or two, the crew decided that the traverse of Cape Idokopas was already passed, so they decided to keep the course lower than the clouds in order to return to visual flight again. During the descent, the pilots did not follow the readings of the radio altimeter , which showed their actual altitude above the terrain, and after some time a plane flying in the clouds 2.7 kilometers (according to other sources - 3.7 kilometers) crashed uphill to the left of the track. A technical examination showed that before the collision with the mountain, the airliner was fully operational ^[1] .

In the conclusion of the commission’s report, the cause of the disaster was the crew’s mistake, which violated the rules of visual flights, including did not monitor its whereabouts, and also fell below the safe altitude established over the terrain. The disaster was accompanied by the fact that on this route it was impossible to conduct radar control over its entire length, since this did not allow the possibility of the used radar and radio equipment when working on the coast of a mountainous area ^[1] .