Kakheti | Bureau of Aircraft Accidents Archives

The crew was engaged in a spraying mission in the region of Eldari and arrived on March 13. No flight was scheduled on March 14 so the crew decided to perform engine tests. The captain asked the copilot to give up his seat to the mechanic for the purpose of the engine test run. Three unauthorized passengers from a local farm embarked and the captain decided to takeoff despite poor weather conditions (visibility below minimums). The single engine aircraft took off at 1228LT with flaps down at 20°. During initial climb, at a height of about 25-30 meters, the airplane entered a right turn then lost height and crashed in a field located 600 meters from the point of departure. A passenger was killed while five other occupants were injured.

Probable cause:

It was determined that the captain decided to initiate a local test flight without a copilot in poor weather conditions (fog down to 50 meters and horizontal visibility down to 300 meters) without prior permission and with unauthorized passengers on board. In limited visibility, the airplane banked to the right to an angle of 30° and an excessive correction from the pilot-in-command caused the aircraft to be uncontrollable, to lose height and to crash.

Crash of a Tupolev ANT-40 near Napareuli: 3 killed

Date & Time: Sep 23, 1938 at 0515 LT

Type of aircraft:

Tupolev ANT-40 (PS-40/PS-41)

Operator:

Registration:

CCCP-L2446

Flight Phase:

Flight

Flight Type:

Cargo

Survivors:

Site:

Mountains

Schedule:

Tbilisi – Rostov-on-Don – Moscow

MSN:

8/95

YOM:

1938

Location:

Country:

Region:

Crew on board:

Crew fatalities:

Pax on board:

Pax fatalities:

Other fatalities:

Total fatalities:

Circumstances:

The twin engine aircraft departed Tbilisi at 0442LT on a cargo flight to Moscow with an intermediate stop in Rostov with three crew members on board. 33 minutes into the flight, radio contact was lost after the airplane impacted the slope of a mountain located 22 km north-northeast of Napareuli. As the airplane failed to arrive in Rostov, SAR operations were initiated. On 28 October 1938, the wreckage was found by two locals in a ravine. All three crew members were killed.

Probable cause:

The direct cause of the accident was the pilot's violation of §53 of the Flight Manual (leaving the route). According to the conclusion of the Main Inspectorate of ATC, the main cause of the crash was Aeroflot's insistence on a one-day flight, which the Head of the Georgian ATC did not protest, not taking into account the time of year and overestimating the qualities of the pilot, who had insufficient training on this type of aircraft. The responsable of the accident is the Head of the Main Directorate of Civil Aviation, who organized the unnecessary high-speed flight and committed a number of violations of the Flight Manual. Another person responsible for the crash was the head of the Georgian Air Traffic Control Directorate, who had released the plane in unstable weather conditions and had no radio navigation equipment on the route. The detection of the aircraft near Telovo can be attributed to wind drift in the absence of radio navigation facilities, rather than being deliberate.