Aviastar-TU Flight 1906
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Aviastar-TU Flight 1906 was a
Tupolev Tu-204 The Tupolev Tu-204 () is a twin-engined medium- range narrow-body jet airliner capable of carrying 210 passengers, designed by Tupolev and produced by Aviastar-SP and Kazan Aircraft Production Association. First introduced in 1995, it was in ...
that crashed while attempting to land at
Domodedovo International Airport Moscow Domodedovo International Airport ( rus, links=no, аэропорт Домодедово, p=dəmɐˈdʲɛdəvə) (IATA: DME, ICAO: UUDD), formally Domodedovo Mikhail Lomonosov International Airport, is an international airport serving Mosc ...
,
Moscow, Russia Moscow is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Russia by population, largest city of Russia, standing on the Moskva (river), Moskva River in Central Russia. It has a population estimated at over 13 million residents with ...
, in heavy
fog Fog is a visible aerosol consisting of tiny water droplets or ice crystals suspended in the air at or near the Earth's surface. Reprint from Fog can be considered a type of low-lying cloud usually resembling stratus and is heavily influenc ...
on 22 March 2010. The aircraft was on a ferry flight from
Hurghada International Airport Hurghada International Airport is the international airport of Hurghada in Egypt. It is located inland, southwest of El Dahar, the city centre of Hurghada. It is the second busiest airport in Egypt after Cairo International Airport, one of th ...
,
Egypt Egypt ( , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a country spanning the Northeast Africa, northeast corner of Africa and Western Asia, southwest corner of Asia via the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to northe ...
to Moscow, and had no passengers on board; all eight crew survived the accident, four with serious injuries requiring hospitalization and four with minor injuries. The accident was the first hull loss of a Tu-204 and the first hull loss for
Aviastar-TU Aviastar-TU Airlines () is a Russian cargo charter airline which operates principally out of Ramenskoye Airport in Moscow, Russia. Its headquarters is located in Zhukovsky, Moscow Oblast. It is currently banned from flying into the EU like all ot ...
. Investigators determined the cause of the accident to be failure of the
autopilot An autopilot is a system used to control the path of a vehicle without requiring constant manual control by a human operator. Autopilots do not replace human operators. Instead, the autopilot assists the operator's control of the vehicle, allow ...
system and poor cockpit crew performance.


Accident

Aviastar-TU Airlines Flight 1906 was a ferry flight with only eight crew on board the aircraft. At 02:34 local time (23:34 on 21 March
UTC Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) is the primary time standard globally used to regulate clocks and time. It establishes a reference for the current time, forming the basis for civil time and time zones. UTC facilitates international communica ...
), the plane crash-landed about short of runway 14R at Domodedovo airport while attempting to land at night in fog and poor visibility. The
METAR METAR is a format for reporting weather information. A METAR weather report is predominantly used by aircraft pilots, and by meteorologists, who use aggregated METAR information to assist in weather forecasting. Raw METAR is highly standardize ...
for the airport at the time indicated wind direction 160° at and visibility .Translation: METAR for Domodedovo International Airport issued at 21st of the month at 23:30
Zulu Time Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) is the primary time standard globally used to regulate clocks and time. It establishes a reference for the current time, forming the basis for civil time and time zones. UTC facilitates international communicat ...
. Wind direction 160° at Visibility . Runway visual range for runway 14R , for runway 14L . Vertical visibility . Temperature , dewpoint . QNH 1002 hPa. No significant change expected, end of METAR
When the aircraft was on final, the pilots received several warnings from ATC that they were to the left of the landing course, followed by another warning that they were too low. The pilots were confused about their location and were trying to figure it out based on reports from ATC, the flight computer and a portable GPS device. According to the final investigation report, they also ignored automatic altitude readouts that started at above ground level and continued every . Nine seconds before the impact, the pilot contacted ATC to ask if they were off course, still concentrated on aligning the aircraft with the runway and not on its altitude. The pilots made no effort to stop the descent. The aircraft crash-landed in a birch forest at 23:35 local time, its left wing broke off, and the hull broke into two. There was no fire. Fire services arrived 30 minutes later. All crew members except the flight engineer who was seriously injured, escaped the crashed plane on their own. They could not immediately explain the reason of the crash, saying that it happened too fast. One of the crew members (purser) reached the nearby highway and stopped a car which took her to a hospital. Three other crew members also reached the highway and waited there for an ambulance. The two pilots suffered serious fractures and concussions; two others were taken to hospital where they were described as being in a satisfactory condition. The four remaining crew members were treated for minor injuries in Domodedovo's medical center. The accident resulted in the first hull loss of a Tupolev Tu-204 and the first hull loss for Aviastar-TU.


Aircraft

The accident aircraft was Tupolev Tu-204-100, msn 1450741364011, registration RA-64011. The aircraft first flew as RA-64011 on 25 March 1993. On 3 September 1993 it entered service with Vnukovo Airlines. In January 2001, it was sold to Sibir Airlines. Before the crash, the aircraft was involved in two accidents. On 14 January 2002, the aircraft was flying from
Frankfurt Frankfurt am Main () is the most populous city in the States of Germany, German state of Hesse. Its 773,068 inhabitants as of 2022 make it the List of cities in Germany by population, fifth-most populous city in Germany. Located in the forela ...
to
Novosibirsk Novosibirsk is the largest city and administrative centre of Novosibirsk Oblast and the Siberian Federal District in Russia. As of the 2021 Russian census, 2021 census, it had a population of 1,633,595, making it the most populous city in Siber ...
when it had to be diverted to
Omsk Omsk (; , ) is the administrative center and largest types of inhabited localities in Russia, city of Omsk Oblast, Russia. It is situated in southwestern Siberia and has a population of over one million. Omsk is the third List of cities and tow ...
due to poor weather at the destination. On approach, pilots reported fuel supply problems, followed by a
flameout In aviation, a flameout (or flame-out) is the run-down of a jet engine or other turbine engine due to the extinguishment of the flame in its combustor. The loss of flame can have a variety of causes, such as fuel starvation, excessive altitude, ...
of both engines. The aircraft glided and landed on the runway, overran the runway and collided with the lights after the
runway threshold In aviation, a runway is an elongated, rectangular surface designed for the landing and takeoff of an aircraft. Runways may be a human-made surface (often asphalt, concrete, or a mixture of both) or a natural surface (grass, dirt, gravel, ic ...
. There were no injuries. The aircraft was repaired and continued service. From August 2006 the aircraft was leased to various Russian airlines –
Red Wings Airlines Red Wings Airlines is a Russian regional leisure airline based in Moscow Domodedovo Airport. The airline provides both scheduled passenger and cargo services. History Red Wings was founded in 1999 under the name VARZ-400, after the Russian ac ...
,
Aviastar-TU Aviastar-TU Airlines () is a Russian cargo charter airline which operates principally out of Ramenskoye Airport in Moscow, Russia. Its headquarters is located in Zhukovsky, Moscow Oblast. It is currently banned from flying into the EU like all ot ...
,
Interavia Airlines Interavia Airlines (Russian: ''Авиакомпания'' Интеравиа) was an airline based in Moscow, Russia. It operated scheduled and charter passenger services. Its main base was Domodedovo International Airport, Moscow. The Russian av ...
and then Aviastar-TU again. On 21 March 2010, one day before the crash, the aircraft was flying from Moscow to Hurghada with 210 passengers on board when it had to return to Moscow due to smoke in the cockpit. The accident was caused by a faulty heater in the cockpit, which was promptly repaired.


Investigation

Despite the adverse weather, Russian federal air transport service Rosaviatsia says the aircraft conducted a normal approach and "the crew did not report any failures, malfunctions, or the intention to make an emergency landing." Russia's top investigator said on 22 March that the emergency landing may have been caused by an infringement of safety rules. The method the crew used to navigate the aircraft is a particular avenue of the investigation into the accident. Rosaviatsia says the flight recorders have been recovered and sent to the
Interstate Aviation Committee The Interstate Aviation Committee (IAC; ) is an executive body of the Civil Aviation and Airspace Use Council of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) and was formed in 1991 Preliminary analysis of flight data has shown that the aircraft was not damaged in the air by any fire or explosion, and both engines operated until the impact. According to the chief of the Russia's Federal Air Transport Agency Alexander Neradko the "human factor" is the likely reason behind the crash.Human factor behind Tu-204 crash near Domodedovo airport
ITAR-TASS The Russian News Agency TASS, or simply TASS, is a Russian state-owned news agency founded in 1904. It is the largest Russian news agency and one of the largest news agencies worldwide. TASS is registered as a Federal State Unitary Enterpri ...
, 25 March 2010
On 30 March 2010, it was reported that the aircraft had 9 tonnes of fuel on board at the time of the crash. On approach to Domodedovo, the autopilot system failed as the aircraft descended through . The crew then flew the aircraft manually, and did not communicate the failure of the autoflight system to Air Traffic Control. Two months before the crash, the captain was disciplined for a minor violation (accidentally operating spoilers in flight during approach with flaps down).


Final investigation report

On 7 September 2010, the МАК released their final report into the accident. Some of their findings are: * There were no damage sustained to the aircraft in flight; * The aircraft had 9 tons of fuel on board and both engines were operating until the impact; * During the early stage of the descent, the two flight computers produced conflicting data that had to be corrected manually. This caused a furious response from the captain. * During the approach, at , the course mode of the autopilot disconnected due to radio altimeter failure, and the pilots did not notify ATC about this. They repeatedly tried to switch it back on, with "increasing nervousness" and cursing. When crossing , the flight control computer failed too. * The pilot expected that the instrument landing system was not available because of the failures, and stated to the crew: "So, pay attention, I'm going to have a hard time, so get together and watch everything". He did not abort landing. This phrase was also noted by the investigators as an example of poor CRM. * The pilot repeatedly stated to the ATC that he was certified to land with vertical visibility of , whereas in fact he was only certified to land with vertical visibility of . During the approach, the vertical visibility ranged from . * The pilot also misinformed ATC that he was executing an ILS approach, while in fact he was not. The ILS was likely operational, but the ILS frequency was not set because the pilots assumed it was not operational. When the ILS indicator is not in use, its needle is in the middle, same as when the aircraft is exactly following the glideslope. Therefore, the report suggests that the pilot may have believed that he was on the glideslope, even though he was significantly below it. * A holder for a portable GPS device was found in the cockpit, but the device itself was not found. The investigation report, based on CVR recordings, states that the pilots may have relied on the portable GPS device to understand their location. * The report suggests that during the final minutes of the flight, all three pilots were focused on correcting the horizontal deviation from the landing course and did not pay attention to the altitude.


Cause

The report states the following reason of the crash:
The cause of the incident with Tu-204-100 registered RA-64011 during the approach for landing in weather conditions that did not meet the minima permitted for this aircraft type and with fully operational equipment was failure to make a go-around decision and continued descent despite no visual contact with the ground, which has caused an impact with trees and ground in a
controlled flight into terrain In aviation, a controlled flight into terrain (CFIT; usually ) is an aviation accidents and incidents, accident in which an airworthy aircraft, fully under pilot control, is unintentionally flown into the ground, a body of water or other obstac ...
.
The report listed the following contributing factors: * Insufficient training for landing in adverse weather conditions; * Unsatisfactory CRM; * Autopilot failure; * Failure to divert to another airport; * Failure to go around; * Unsatisfactory communication between crew members.


Criminal case

In March 2011, both pilots (Aleksandr Kosyakov and Aleksey Mikhailovsky) were sentenced to one-year suspended prison term.


References


External links


Final report into the accident
(In Russian)
Photo of the accident aircraft before crash

Photo of the accident aircraft at crash site

Video of the wrecked aircraft
(
BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...
) {{Aviation accidents and incidents in Russia in the 2010s Aviation accidents and incidents in Russia in 2010 Accidents and incidents involving the Tupolev Tu-204 2010 disasters in Russia March 2010 in Russia