Accident | |
---|---|
Date | 18 August 1973 |
Summary | Struck a cable at low altitude after suffering an uncontained engine failure |
Site | Near Baku-Bina International Airport, Baku, Azerbaijan 40°19′48.6″N 50°34′08.6″E / 40.330167°N 50.569056°E / 40.330167; 50.569056 |
Aircraft | |
Aircraft type | Antonov An-24B |
Operator | Aeroflot |
Registration | CCCP-46435 |
Flight origin | Baku-Bina International Airport, Baku, Azerbaijan |
Destination | Fort-Shevchenko Airport, Kazakh SSR |
Passengers | 60 |
Crew | 4 |
Fatalities | 56 |
Injuries | 8 |
Survivors | 8 |
Aeroflot Flight A-13 (Russian: Рейс A-13 Аэрофлота Reys A-13 Aeroflota) was a scheduled Soviet domestic passenger flight from Baku, AzerbaijantoFort-ShevchenkoinKazakhstan that crashed on 18 August 1973 shortly after takeoff killing 56 of the 64 passengers and crew aboard. The Antonov An-24 had suffered an engine failure on takeoff and was attempting to return to the airport when it struck an oil rig cable at low altitude resulting in a crash. At the time, it was the second deadliest accident involving the An-24 and remains the second deadliest aviation accident in Azerbaijani history.[1] The engine failure had been caused by the effect of continuous overheating on the performance of the blades.
The aircraft involved in the accident was an Antonov An-24B registered CCCP-46435 to Aeroflot. The Antonov An-24 is a twin engine medium haul transport/passenger aircraft that was introduced in 1962. The 'B' variant of the model increased passenger capacity and modified the flaps to increase performance.[2] CCCP-46435 entered service in 1968 and was operating under the Azerbaijan Civil Aviation Administration. At the time of the accident, the aircraft had sustained 7,374 flight hours and 5,502 pressurization cycles.[3]
The cockpit crew consisted of:
At 18:36 MSK on 18 August 1973, CCCP-46435 took off from Baku-Bina International Airport for an approximately 300 miles (480 km) flight to the Kazakh town of Fort-Shevchenko. Weather at the time was fair with ten kilometers of visibility, and wind coming from the north. On board were sixty passengers, including eleven children, and four crew who were on their second flight of the day. Just 30 feet (9.1 m) above the runway, the An-24 suffered an uncontained failure of the left engine. At 90 feet (27 m) the crew retracted the flaps and began turning left at an altitude of 120 feet (37 m). As it turned, the left wingtip struck the cable of an oil rig in the Caspian Sea, shearing it off. The plane descended, striking a pipeline, before crashing near a highway at 18:51 MSK. 54 people on board were killed and eight others seriously injured including the flight's captain and flight engineer.[1][3]
An investigation of the crash blamed the engine failure on the degradation of the turbine blades in the engine as a result of continuous overheating. This overheating can stem from several causes including not following the correct start-up procedures, design flaws, and the inability to detect overheating by visual means or through instrument indications. The plane was also overloaded beyond its weight capacity by 193 kilograms (425 pounds).[3]
Aviation accidents and incidents in 1973 (1973)
| |
---|---|
Jan 21 Jan 22 Kano Nigeria Airways Boeing 707 crash Jan 29 Feb 19 Feb 21 Libyan Arab Airlines Flight 114 Feb 24 Feb 26 DeKalb–Peachtree Airport Learjet 24 crash Mar 3 Balkan Bulgarian Airlines Flight 307 Mar 5 Apr 10 Invicta International Airlines Flight 435 Apr 23 May 11 May 18 May 30 May 31 Jun 3 Jun 10 Jun 20 Jul 11 Jul 22 Jul 23 Jul 23 Jul 31 Aug 13 Aug 18 Aug 28 Sep 8 Sep 11 Sep 27 Texas International Airlines Flight 655 Sep 30 Oct 13 Nov 2 Nov 3 Nov 3 Nov 21 US Navy C-117D Sólheimasandur Crash Nov 23 Italian Air Force C-47 Argo 16 crash Nov 25 Dec 16 Dec 17 Dec 17 Pan Am Fl. 110, Lufthansa Fl. 303 hijacking Dec 22 Royal Air Maroc Caravelle crash | |
| |||||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Aviation accidents and incidents in Azerbaijan
| |
---|---|
Azerbaijan SSR |
|
Independent Azerbaijan |
|
Incidents with asterisks (*) occurred in Nagorno-Karabakh, internationally recognised as Azerbaijan but governed by the Republic of Artsakh |