Aeroflot Flight 1491 - Misplaced Pages

1972 Antonov An-10 crash Not to be confused with Aeroflot Flight 1492.

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Aeroflot Flight 1491
Accident
An Aeroflot Antonov An-10 similar to the accident aircraft
Date	18 May 1972 (1972-05-18)
Summary	Structural failure, mid-air breakup
Site	Near Kharkiv, Ukrainian SSR 49°54′56″N 36°39′02″E / 49.91556°N 36.65056°E / 49.91556; 36.65056
Aircraft
Aircraft type	Antonov An-10A
Operator	Aeroflot (Ukrainian UGA, Kharkiv JSC)
Registration	CCCP-11215
Flight origin	Vnukovo Airport, Moscow
Destination	Kharkiv Airport, Kharkiv
Occupants	122
Passengers	114
Crew	8
Fatalities	122
Survivors	0

Aeroflot Flight 1491 was a scheduled domestic passenger flight from Moscow-Vnukovo Airport to Kharkiv Airport in the USSR that crashed on 18 May 1972 while descending to land in Kharkiv, killing all 122 passengers and crew aboard the Antonov An-10.

Aircraft and crew

Aircraft

The Antonov An-10A, registration CCCP-11215, was manufactured at the Voronezh Aviation Plant on 3 February 1961. On 7 February 1961 it was delivered to Aeroflot's Kharkiv division. At the time of the accident, the aircraft accumulated 11,105 flight cycles and 15,483 flying hours.

Crew and passengers

The flight crew responsible flying the aircraft was from the 87th Flight Squad (Kharkiv United Squadron). Captain Vladimir Vasiltsov was in charge of this flight; first officer Andrei Burkovskii, navigator Aleksandr Grishko, flight engineer Vladimir Shchokin, and radio operator Konstantin Peresechanskii were also in the flight deck.

Among the 115 passengers were:

Viktor Chistyakov, pop artist and parodist
Nina Aleksandrovna, journalist for Izvestia
Boris Ryshkovsky, husband of actress Victoria Lepko
Vladimir Zaimov, Bulgarian mathematician
Mokichev Konstantin Andreevich, lawyer, Doctor of Law, First Deputy Prosecutor General of the USSR (in 1949-1952, Rector of the All-Union Correspondence Law Institute (VYuZI)
A delegation of GDR pioneers

Also on board was the escort of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, Ivan Medvedyuk.

Synopsis

Flight 1491 took off from Moscow-Vnukovo Airport at 10:39 for Kharkiv. The flight took place in clear, good weather. At 11:44, on approach to Kharkiv, ATC instructed the crew to descend to 1,500 m (4,900 ft). This was the last communication with the aircraft. At 11:51, ATC contacted the crew, but there was no response. At 11:53, the aircraft disappeared from radar screens.

During the descent from 4,500 m (14,800 ft) to 1,500 m (4,900 ft), while flying at 1,700 m (5,600 ft), the aircraft broke apart and crashed. The wreckage was found 24 km (15 mi) from Kharkiv Airport, in the Olkhovaya Balka forest; an engine and a wing were found some distance from the fuselage, which was found between Borshchevaya and Russkaya Lozovaya in the Dergachevsky district of the Kharkov region. None of the 122 on board survived.

The first person at the crash site was a forester who stated that there was nothing left of the occupants, the bodies were fragmented. Only the body of a baby was found intact.

A commission was set up to investigate the crash, and member Friedlander recalled what experts saw at the scene:

...Here are the fragments of the lower wing panel, which is stretched in flight and therefore is the most vulnerable part of the structure. There is also a piece of the center section, and fragments of stringers stick out like broken ribs of a dinosaur skeleton. The fractures are smeared and blackened...
I.P. Zhegina, a fracture specialist, comes up to me and shows me pieces of stringers. She cleaned them as best she could, and fatigue cracks became visible... Later we find five more stringers, and all of them have cracks in the form of fatigue pads...

Investigation

During the commission's work to investigate the cause of the crash, it was established that the cause was the failure of the wing center section in mid-air due to a failure in the lower panel of the center section, caused by fatigue cracks in the stringers and skin.

According to the commission's conclusion, the emergency situation on board arose a minute before the aircraft broke up. The crack, which began in he fatigue zone between the 6th and 7th stringers of the lower panel of the center section, grew in both directions and moved towards the spars. At that moment, the zero rib, which connected the stringers to the riveted panel, failed. As a result, both wings folded upward.

From the conclusion:

Engine number one was the first to separate from the left wing.
Approximately two seconds later, engine number four separated from the right wing. - Approximately three seconds after engine one separated from the fuselage, the left wing separated from the fuselage. - The right wing separated from the fuselage last, approximately four seconds after the start of visible destruction (separation of engine one).
The total duration of visible damage was 4 seconds. The distance from the start of the fall to the impact point was 3,400 meters. The An-10A aircraft, tail number CCCP-11215, factory number 0402502, was manufactured by the Voronezh Aviation Plant on February 3, 1961. By the time of the accident, it had flown 15,435 hours, made 11,106 landings, and undergone three factory repairs, the last one on February 2, 1971 at Civil Aviation Plant No. 412. After the repair, it had flown 2,291 hours and made 1,516 landings. The aircraft had a general technical resource of 20,000 flight hours and 12,000 landings.

Aftermath

Pravda reported on the crash of Flight 1491 shortly after it happened. At the time, it was unusual in the Soviet Union for there to be press reports on domestic air crashes.

This crash was not the first involving the An-10; in addition, their were other crashes due to design flaws (the crash of Aeroflot Flight 1969 was also caused by wing separation; at Kurumoch Airport, a wing broke off an An-10 during towing).

Following the completion of the investigation, it was decided to ground all An-10 and An-10A aircraft. Aeroflot soon issued an order to write off their fleet of An-10 and An-10As, except for a small number of aircraft that had low operating hours (following inspection, they were transferred to transport units of the Ministry of Aviation as cargo freighters). One An-10 at the Wittstock training ground in East Germany was even relegated to a target. Eleven other aircraft were installed in various Soviet cities for other uses, such as aviation monuments, shooting galleries and children's cafes. The sole surviving An-10 is at the Central Air Force Museum at Monino.

Memorials

The crew and the unidentified remains of those killed are buried at the 5th city cemetery of Kharkiv near Kharkiv Airport.

At the main crash site of the fuselage, a monument was erected with the inscription: "You are forever alive in our hearts", although it has disappeared over the years; only a piece of reinforcement remains, with an iron wreath hung on it.

Notes

The death toll was also claimed to be 108.

References

"Accidents to public transport operator's aircraft – 1972—Scheduled passenger flights". Flight International: 92. 18 January 1973. Archived from the original on 4 November 2016. Retrieved 11 January 2012.
"An-10A c/n 0402502". Soviet Transport Database. Dutch Aviation Society.
"Сегодня – Международный день музеев – РЕДПОСТ". m.redpost.com.ua. Retrieved 11 May 2020.
"Катастрофы Самолета Ан". prostobook.com. Retrieved 11 May 2020.
"Soviet Air Crash Bared". The Sun. 20 May 1972.

External links

Aeroflot

Part of SkyTeam alliance

Subsidiaries

Active	Pobeda Rossiya
Inactive	Dobrolet Donavia Orenair SAT Airlines Vladivostok Air
Exited	Aurora Nordavia (now Smartavia)

Fleet

Accidents and
incidents

1940s	G-2 Alma-Ata crash ANT-20bis crash CCCP-Л1450 crash Flight 17
1950s	Il-12 Karaganda crash Il-12 Novosibirsk crash Kemerovo mid-air collision Flight 229 Flight 783 Flight 10 Flight 136 Flight 214 Flight 229 Kiev mid-air collision Flight 11 Flight 10 Flight 105 Flight 04 Flight 365 Flight 164 Il-12 Lazo crash Тu-104 Kanash crash Flight 200 Flight 315
1960s	Flight 315 Flight 207 Flight 036 Flight 068 Flight 245 Flight 902 Flight 415 Flight 03 Flight 213 Flight 191 Flight 25 Flight 012 Flight 366 Flight 663 Flight 721 Flight 101/X-20 Flight 542 Flight 513 Flight 99 Flight 065 Flight 2723 Flight 5003 Flight 2230 Flight L-51 Flight 1668 Flight 15 Flight 831 Flight F-28 Flight N-826
1970s	Flight U-45 Flight 1661 Flight 3630 CCCP-11000 crash CCCP-12996 crash Flight 1969 Flight 1912 Flight 773 Flight N-63 Flight 2174 Flight 1491 Flight 558 Flight 1036 Flight 217 Flight 6263 Flight 141 Flight 630 Flight X-167 Flight 6551 Flight 109 Flight A-13 Flight 3932 Flight 964 Flight 19 Flight 2022 Flight 2420 CCCP-75559 crash Flight 662 Flight E-15 Flight A-53 Flight 2003 Flight 3739 Flight 909 Flight 1802 Flight 418 Flights 7957 and 31 Flight 2415 Flight N-36 Flight 3843 Flight 5003 Flight 331 Flight B-2 Flight 6709 Flight 1080 Flight 6515 Flight 1691 Flights 7628 and 7880 Flight 5484
1980s	Flight 4225 Flight 498 Flight 811 Flight 3603 Flight 8641 Flight 411 Flight 343 Flight 5463 Flight 601 Flight 3352 Flight F-637 Flight 3519 Flight 7841 Zolochiv mid-air collision Flight 5143 Flight 101/435 Flight F-77 Flight 2306 Flight 6502 Flight 892 Flight U-505 Flight N-528 Flight 699 Flight 3739
since 1990s	Flight E-35D CCCP-46472 crash Flight 2808 Flight 593 Flight 521 Flight 821 Flight 1492

v t e Aviation accidents and incidents in 1972 (1972)
Jan 7 Iberia Flight 602Jan 21 Turkish Airlines DC-9 crashJan 26 JAT Yugoslav Flight 367Feb 22 Lufthansa Flight 649Mar 3 Mohawk Airlines Flight 405Mar 14 Sterling Airways Flight 296Mar 19 EgyptAir Flight 763Apr 18 East African Airways Flight 720May 4 Aeroflot Flight B-608May 5 Alitalia Flight 112May 8 Sabena Flight 571May 16 Svetlogorsk An-24 crashMay 18 Aeroflot Flight 1491May 30 Delta Air Lines Flight 9570Jun 12 American Airlines Flight 96Jun 14 Japan Air Lines Flight 471Jun 15 Cathay Pacific Flight 700ZJun 18 British European Airways Flight 548Jun 24 Prinair Flight 191Jun 29 Lake Winnebago mid-air collisionJul 2 Pan Am Flight 841Jul 5 Pacific Southwest Airlines Flight 710Jul 31 Delta Air Lines Flight 841Aug 14 Königs Wusterhausen disasterAug 16 Burma Airways Thandwe crashAug 31 Aeroflot Flight 558Sep 15 Scandinavian Airlines System Flight 130Sep 24 Japan Air Lines Flight 472Sep 24 Sacramento Canadair Sabre accidentOct 1 Aeroflot Flight 1036Oct 13 Aeroflot Flight 217Oct 13 Uruguayan Air Force Flight 571Oct 27 Air Inter Flight 696YOct 29 Lufthansa Flight 615Oct 30 Aero Trasporti Italiani Flight 327Nov 10 Southern Airways Flight 49Nov 15 Ansett Australia Flight 232Nov 28 Japan Air Lines Flight 446Dec 3 Tenerife Spantax Convair CV-990 crashDec 8 Ethiopian Airlines Flight 708Dec 8 United Air Lines Flight 553Dec 8 Pakistan International Airlines Flight 631Dec 20 Chicago–O'Hare runway collisionDec 23 Braathens Flight 239Dec 29 Eastern Air Lines Flight 401Dec 31 Puerto Rico DC-7 crash
1971 ◄ ► 1973

Aviation accidents and incidents in 1972 (1972)

Jan 7 Iberia Flight 602Jan 21 Turkish Airlines DC-9 crashJan 26 JAT Yugoslav Flight 367Feb 22 Lufthansa Flight 649Mar 3 Mohawk Airlines Flight 405Mar 14 Sterling Airways Flight 296Mar 19 EgyptAir Flight 763Apr 18 East African Airways Flight 720May 4 Aeroflot Flight B-608May 5 Alitalia Flight 112May 8 Sabena Flight 571May 16 Svetlogorsk An-24 crashMay 18 Aeroflot Flight 1491May 30 Delta Air Lines Flight 9570Jun 12 American Airlines Flight 96Jun 14 Japan Air Lines Flight 471Jun 15 Cathay Pacific Flight 700ZJun 18 British European Airways Flight 548Jun 24 Prinair Flight 191Jun 29 Lake Winnebago mid-air collisionJul 2 Pan Am Flight 841Jul 5 Pacific Southwest Airlines Flight 710Jul 31 Delta Air Lines Flight 841Aug 14 Königs Wusterhausen disasterAug 16 Burma Airways Thandwe crashAug 31 Aeroflot Flight 558Sep 15 Scandinavian Airlines System Flight 130Sep 24 Japan Air Lines Flight 472Sep 24 Sacramento Canadair Sabre accidentOct 1 Aeroflot Flight 1036Oct 13 Aeroflot Flight 217Oct 13 Uruguayan Air Force Flight 571Oct 27 Air Inter Flight 696YOct 29 Lufthansa Flight 615Oct 30 Aero Trasporti Italiani Flight 327Nov 10 Southern Airways Flight 49Nov 15 Ansett Australia Flight 232Nov 28 Japan Air Lines Flight 446Dec 3 Tenerife Spantax Convair CV-990 crashDec 8 Ethiopian Airlines Flight 708Dec 8 United Air Lines Flight 553Dec 8 Pakistan International Airlines Flight 631Dec 20 Chicago–O'Hare runway collisionDec 23 Braathens Flight 239Dec 29 Eastern Air Lines Flight 401Dec 31 Puerto Rico DC-7 crash

1971 ◄ ► 1973

Aviation accidents and incidents in Ukraine

Ukrainian SSR
(1919–1991)

1950s	Kiev mid-air collision (August 1957) Aeroflot Flight 315 (November 1959)
1960s	Aeroflot Flight 315 (February 1960) Aeroflot Flight 036 (August 1960) Aeroflot Flight N-826 (August 1969)
1970s	Aeroflot Flight 3630 (September 1970) Aeroflot Flight 1969 (March 1971) Malév Flight 110 (September 1971) Aeroflot Flight N-63 (November 1971) Aeroflot Flight 1491 (May 1972) Aeroflot Flight 1802 (May 1976) Aeroflot Flight N-36 (December 1976) Dniprodzerzhynsk mid-air collision (August 1979)
1980s	Zolochiv mid-air collision (May 1985) Aeroflot Flight N-528 (June 1987)

Ukraine
(1991–)

1990s	Borodianka mid-air collision (February 1995)
2000s	Siberia Airlines Flight 1812 (October 2001) Sknyliv air show disaster (July 2002) Pulkovo Aviation Enterprise Flight 612 (August 2006)
2010s	South Airlines Flight 8971 (February 2013) Ukrainian Air Force Il-76 shootdown (June 2014) Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 (July 2014) Ukraine Air Alliance Flight 4050 (October 2019)
2020s	Chuhuiv An-26 crash (September 2020) Brovary helicopter crash (January 2023)

This includes accidents in the Ukrainian SSR and post-independence Ukraine

v t e Aviation accidents and incidents in the Soviet Union in the 1970s
1970	Batagay Aeroflot An-24 crash (28 January 1970) Aeroflot Flight 145 (29 January 1970) Aeroflot Flight U-45 (February 1970) Aeroflot Flight 1661 (April 1970) Dymshits–Kuznetsov hijacking affair (June 1970) Aeroflot Flight 3630 (September 1970) Aeroflot Flight 244 (October 1970)
1971	Surgut Aeroflot An-12 crash (22 January 1971) Surgut Aeroflot An-12 crash (31 January 1971) Aeroflot Flight 1969 (March 1971) Aeroflot Flight 1912 (July 1971) Malév Flight 110 (September 1971) Aeroflot Flight 773 (October 1971) Aeroflot Flight N-63 (November 1971) Aeroflot Flight 2174 (December 1971)
1972	Aeroflot Flight B-608 (4 May 1972) Svetlogorsk An-24 crash (16 May 1972) Aeroflot Flight 1491 (18 May 1972) Aeroflot Flight 558 (August 1972) Aeroflot Flight 1036 (1 October 1972) Aeroflot Flight 217 (13 October 1972) Japan Air Lines Flight 446 (November 1972)
1973	Aeroflot Flight 6263 (January 1973) Aeroflot Flight 630 (24 February 1973) Aeroflot Flight X-167 (28 February 1973) Balkan Bulgarian Airlines Flight 307 (March 1973) Aeroflot Flight 2420 (April 1973) Aeroflot Flight 6551 (11 May 1973) Aeroflot Flight 109 (18 May 1973) Aeroflot Flight A-13 (August 1973) Aeroflot Flight 3932 (September 1973) Aeroflot Flight 964 (October 1973) Aeroflot Flight 19 (November 1973) Aeroflot Flight 2022 (December 1973)
1974	Aeroflot Flight H-75 (January 1974) Leningrad Aeroflot Il-18 crash (April 1974)
1975	Aeroflot Flight E-15 (July 1975) Aeroflot Flight 6274 (November 1975)
1976	Aeroflot Flight 2003 (January 1976) Aeroflot Flight 3739 (February 1976) Aeroflot Flight 909 (March 1976) Aeroflot Flight 1802 (May 1976) Anapa mid-air collision (September 1976) Aeroflot Flight 2415 (November 1976) Aeroflot Flight N-36 (December 1976)
1977	Aeroflot Flight 3843 (January 1977) Aeroflot Flight 5003 (February 1977) Tavda mid-air collision (May 1977) Aeroflot Tu-134 hijacking (10 July 1977) Aeroflot Flight B-2 (20 July 1977)
1978	Korean Air Lines Flight 902 (April 1978) Aeroflot Flight 6709 (19 May 1978) Yegoryevsk Tu-144 crash (23 May 1978) Iranian Chinook shootdown (June 1978) Aeroflot Flight 1080 (7 October 1978) Aeroflot Flight 6515 (23 October 1978)
1979	Aeroflot Flight 1691 (March 1979) Dniprodzerzhynsk mid-air collision (11 August 1979) Aeroflot Flight 5484 (29 August 1979)
1960–1969 ◄ 1970–1979 ► 1980–1991

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