Investigation Summary
The flight was a multi-stop scheduled service operating the route Baku-Makhachkala-Astrakhan-Stalingrad-Moscow. Significant weather delays throughout the day had pushed the crew well beyond standard duty limits. After one failed attempt to reach Moscow earlier in the afternoon, the crew departed Stalingrad (now Volgograd) again at 18:50. At the moment of this second departure, they had already been on duty for 13 hours and 50 minutes. By the time of the final approach at Vnukovo, their total duty time exceeded 15 hours. Upon arrival in the Moscow area, they encountered a cloud base of only 50 to 60 meters and visibility between 1.5 and 2 kilometers. The approach was handled by a trainee controller who was distracted by providing minor heading corrections (the last being a command to turn left two degrees). Because the controller did not communicate the aircraft's altitude or distance from the threshold, the pilots, whose skills were rated as average and who lacked experience in such extreme low-visibility conditions, descended prematurely. The aircraft struck trees at a height of approximately 20 meters, crashed, and partially burned. The sole survivor was a diplomatic courier. The controller saying "to the left two." was the last thing the pilots heard.
Final Conclusions
The accident was caused by a combination of pilot error and inadequate air traffic control supervision. The crew failed to maintain a safe altitude during a low-visibility approach, likely due to extreme fatigue and insufficient training for landing in dense fog. Contributing to the disaster was the negligence of the trainee controller, who failed to warn the crew of their dangerous descent, and the lack of oversight by a qualified supervisor at the radar station.
Video Analysis
No video analysis linked for this case file yet.
Airframe & Maintenance
Systems & Failure Modes
Precision Approach Radar (PAR)
A radar system used to provide lateral and vertical guidance to pilots during landing. In this case, the trainee operator failed to monitor the vertical glide path.
Ilyushin Il-14M Conversion
The aircraft was originally built as an Il-14P in 1956 and later converted to the modernized Il-14M standard.
Interesting Facts
- 01The crew had been on duty for over 15 hours at the time of the crash.
- 02The aircraft was an Il-14P (serial number 6341709) built in 1956 and later converted to Il-14M standard.
- 03The air traffic controller was a trainee not officially authorized to work the precision approach radar independently.
- 04The aircraft struck trees only 20 meters off the ground while still 1.4 kilometers from the runway.
- 05Visibility at the time of the accident was reported as 1.5 to 2 kilometers with a cloud base of 50 to 60 meters.
- 06The sole survivor was a diplomatic courier for the Azerbaijani SSR.
Safety Actions & Advisories
ATC Supervision Requirements
The investigation highlighted the critical failure of supervision at the Vnukovo radar station, where a trainee was permitted to operate the precision approach radar without the required oversight of a qualified instructor.
Fatigue Management
The accident underscored the dangers of extended duty cycles during multi-leg flights, leading to increased scrutiny of Aeroflot's crew scheduling and the impact of weather-related delays on pilot performance.