Investigation Summary
Flight 217 departed Baku at 22:35 local time for a scheduled flight to Aktau, Kazakhstan. Approximately five minutes into the climb, while over the Caspian Sea, the crew encountered a total failure of the aircraft's flight instruments. The Antonov An-140 was equipped with three independent gyroscopes intended to provide pitch, roll, and heading data; however, all three failed simultaneously. In the absence of a visible horizon due to the night-time conditions and a cloud deck at 300 feet, the pilots were unable to maintain control. The aircraft entered a steep right-hand spiral and impacted the shoreline near Nardaran. The investigation revealed that the aircraft had effectively taken off with 'caged' or malfunctioning gyro horizons that failed to stabilize during the climb. The root cause was traced back to the production line, where counterfeit assemblies and instruments had been integrated into the airframe's systems.
Final Conclusions
The investigation concluded that the primary cause was the failure of the gyro horizons due to the installation of counterfeit components during production at the Kharkiv State Aircraft Manufacturing Company (KhGAPP). This mechanical failure led to a total loss of spatial orientation by the crew. Contributing factors included the night-time conditions and poor visibility, which deprived the pilots of external visual references needed to recover from the instrument failure.
Video Analysis
No video analysis linked for this case file yet.
Airframe & Maintenance
Systems & Failure Modes
Gyro Horizons
Instruments that provide pitch and roll information; all three independent units failed due to counterfeit internal components.
Navigation System
The failure of the gyroscopes also resulted in the loss of stabilized heading and altitude performance information.
Interesting Facts
- 01All 23 people on board, including 18 passengers and 5 crew members, were killed.
- 02The passenger manifest included 15 Azerbaijanis, 4 Kazakhs, 1 Briton, 1 Australian, 1 Turk, and 1 Georgian.
- 03The aircraft was a nearly new Antonov An-140-100, manufactured in 2004 (MSN 36525307036) and named Yevlakh.
- 04Weather at the time included light rain and an overcast ceiling at 300 feet.
- 05The investigation identified counterfeit parts in the gyroscope assemblies as the source of the failure.
- 06The crash site was located on the shore of the Caspian Sea near Nardaran, approximately 35 km northeast of Baku.
Safety Actions & Advisories
Fleet Grounding
Azerbaijan Airlines suspended all remaining Antonov An-140 operations immediately following the accident.
Order Cancellation
The airline cancelled its remaining orders for two additional Antonov An-140 aircraft.