Russia

On final approach to Mozdok AFB, the crew encountered bad weather conditions with heavy snow falls when the aircraft struck the ground and crashed 450 metres short of runway. There were no casualties but the aircraft was damaged beyond repair.

Following an uneventful flight from Safonovo NAS (Severomorsk), the crew started a night descent to Lakhta AFB. Weather conditions were poor with low clouds at 120 metres, a visibility of 1,500 metres and snow squalls. On final, at a distance of 2,700 metres from the runway threshold, the aircraft was 30 metres below the glide. Once the crew reached the decision altitude, he decided to continue despite he did not establish any visual contact with the ground. At a speed of 220-240 km/h and at a height of 16 metres, the right wing collided with trees. The aircraft descended and crashed in a snow covered field located 1,725 metres short of runway and 52 metres to the left of the extended centerline. Three people, among them a pilot, survived, while 17 other occupants were killed. The aircraft was totally destroyed.

The aircraft departed Moscow on a cargo flight to Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky with an intermediate stop in Bratsk, carrying nine passengers, nine crew members and a load of 36 tons of cargo including one aircraft engine and constructions materials. While cruising at an altitude of 9,600 metres, the crew declared an emergency and informed ATC about an in-flight fire. The crew initiated an emergency descent when, at an altitude of 7,000 metres, the aircraft broke into three and crashed in a wooded area located in Novaya Inya. The aircraft was totally destroyed and all 18 occupants were killed.

En route from Khatanga to Moscow-Domodedovo Airport, while cruising by night at an assigned altitude of 7,800 metres in good weather conditions, the four engine aircraft entered an uncontrolled descent. After it reached an excessive speed of 850 km/h, the aircraft rolled to the left to an angle of 60° and nosed down to an angle of 42°. The aircraft suffered structural failure, lost several elements, partially disintegrated in the air and eventually crashed in a snow covered field located 15 km southeast of Kalyazin. The aircraft was totally destroyed and all 27 occupants were killed.

The crew departed Polyarny Airport on a cargo flight to Olenek. En route, weather conditions worsened with mist, low clouds and icing conditions. The crew decided to return to Polyarny when the engine lost power. Unable to maintain a safe altitude, he attempted an emergency landing when the aircraft crash landed in rough terrain. All three occupants were injured and the aircraft was damaged beyond repair.

For unknown reasons, the aircraft landed hard and bounced several times before landing firmly. On touchdown, the nose gear collapsed and the airplane slid for few dozen metres before coming to rest. All 21 occupants escaped uninjured while the aircraft was damaged beyond repair.

The aircraft was engaged in a cargo flight from Moscow to Taiyuan, China, with intermediate stops in Norilsk and Bratsk, carrying two passengers, eight crew members and a load of 40,2 tons of construction materials. Due to foggy conditions, the horizontal visibility was reduced to 500-900 metres and the vertical visibility was estimated to be 70-80 metres. Following a takeoff roll of about 2,700 metres, the captain started the rotation at a speed of 290 km/h (about 25 km/h above the recommended speed). At a height of about 10 metres, the pilot-in-command started a turn to the right of 7° in order to compensate a deviation to the left during the takeoff roll. At a height of 23-24 metres, the stabilizers' position changed from -5,4° to -3,9° and the aircraft started to lose altitude. One second prior to impact, the elevator were in a 11-12° pitch angle and at a height of 20-21 metres, both right engines n°3 and 4 collided with trees at a distance of 930 metres from the runway end and 47 metres to the right of its extended centerline. Upon impact, both engines were torn off and the aircraft crashed in a wooded area located 1,460 metres past the runway end, bursting into flames. The aircraft was totally destroyed and all 10 occupants were killed.

The aircraft was dispatched in the region of Veydelev to perform a crop spraying mission. On board were three pilots, one copilot seating in the jumpseat, one instructor seating in the right seat and one pilot seating in the left seat. After a first pass over the area to be treated at a speed of 140 km/h and at an altitude of 130 metres, the crew initiated a right turn during which the aircraft banked right to an angle of 90°, descended to 60-70 metres and lost speed to 130 km/h while at this stage, its speed should be 155-160 km/h. As the crew was facing a hill, he decided to increase power to gain height but the aircraft struck the ground in a landing configuration. The crew reduced the engine power and started to brake when, at a speed of 50-60 km/h, the aircraft struck trees and came to rest in a wooded area. All three occupants were injured and the aircraft was damaged beyond repair.

On July 8, 2001, approximately 1345 local time (0245UTC), a Pilatus PC-12/45, N660NR, registered to a US private owner, operated by Jeflyn Aviation, Inc. doing business as Access Air, and being flown by a US certificated airline transport rated pilot, was presumed destroyed following a ditching in the Sea of Okhotsk, Western Pacific Ocean. The pilot sustained minor injuries and the three remaining Japanese passengers were uninjured. Instrument meteorological conditions prevailed, and an IFR flight plan had been filed and activated. The flight, which was returning to the United States following a round-the-world trip, was being operated under 14CFR91 as a business trip. The aircraft had originated from Hakodate, Japan, departing 0910 hours local time and was destined for Magadan, Russia. The pilot reported in a telephonic interview that the aircraft was established in cruise at 8,100 meters altitude when he felt a vibration followed by a rapid increase in the engine's Turbine Temperature Indication (TTI). He reported that the TTI reached 1144 degrees during which there was a compressor stall. He shut the engine down, feathered the propeller, and initiated a power off emergency descent. During the emergency descent the pilot radioed a mayday on 121.5 MHz, set his transponder to code 7700, and manually activated the emergency locator beacon. The aircraft descended through multiple cloud layers during which the pilot and passengers prepared for the ditching. The pilot reported that upon breaking through the bottom of the last overcast layer, at 100 feet above the water, he encountered swells of approximately 8-12 feet height. He ditched the aircraft on the crest of a swell and the aircraft came to a stop floating in an upright, level attitude. All four occupants exited the aircraft through the main cabin door into a life raft. Over a period of several hours the occupants lost sight of the floating aircraft and after about 15 hours they were picked up by a Russian container ship and airlifted to Sakhalin Island.

The airplane departed Yekaterinburg Airport on a regular schedule flight (XF352) to Vladivostok with an intermediate stop at Irkutsk. The flight departed Yekaterinburg at 1947LT and climbed to the assigned cruising altitude of 10,100 metres. Some three hours into the flight, at 0150LT, the crew started the descent to Irkutsk Intl Airport. The copilot was the pilot-in-command. At 0205LT, the crew reported at 2,100 metres with the runway in sight. At this time, the aircraft' speed was 540 km/h. The maximum speed at which the landing gear may be lowered was 400 km/h. At 0206:56 the airplane leveled off at 900 metres with an airspeed still at 420 km/h. The first officer asked for gear down and the speed further decreased to 395 km/h with engines at idle. When the gear was down and locked, the airplane entered a left bank angle of 20-23°. The airspeed continued to drop to 365 km/h while the recommended speed was 370 km/h at this stage of the flight. Power was added slowly. This was only just sufficient for maintaining an altitude of 850 metres at 355-360 km/h. At 0207:46, while still in the left hand turn, the angle of attack increased to 16,5° because the autopilot attempted to maintain altitude with a decreasing speed. An aural warning sounded, informing the crew about a high angle of attack. The first officer attempted to correct this by using the control column and disconnected the autopilot. Because he deflected the control column to the left, the left bank increased to the maximum permissible value of -30° to -44°, and then to -48°. In a nose down attitude, the speed increased to 400 km/h then the aircraft entered clouds. By night, the crew lost visual contact with the ground and was not able to observe the natural horizon. In such conditions, the captain took over controls but alternately deflected the steering wheel to the left and right. An intensive deflection of steering control to the right caused a positive angular acceleration of +4,4° per second. The captain reacted by deflecting the steering wheel to the left again. The first officer now realized that the airplane was in a severe left bank of -45° and indicated that they should be rolling to the right. Because of an increase in vertical descent rate of 20 metres per seconds, one of the crew members pulled the control column. The airplane pitched up rapidly then entered a stall and a subsequent flat spin before crashing in an open field 22 seconds later. The aircraft was totally destroyed by impact forces and a post crash fire and all 145 occupants were killed.