1956 Anadyr Li-2 crash


The 1956 Anadyr Li-2 crash was an aviation accident involving a Li-2 aircraft operated by Aeroflot that occurred on 9 December 1956, near Anadyr. The crash resulted in the deaths of all 12 people on board.

Aircraft

The Li-2, with factory number 18435609 and serial number 356-09, was produced by the Tashkent Aviation Production Association on 31 May 1950. The airliner was registered with tail number СССР-Х978 and flew for Dalstroi until 1953 and was transferred to the Main Directorate of Civil Air Fleet under the Council of Ministers of the USSR, which then assigned it to the 194th Flight Detachment of the Magadan Aviation Group under the Far Eastern Civil Aviation Directorate. In 1955 it was re-registered to CCCP-Л5033. The total flight time of the aircraft was 5,333 hours.

Crew

Accident

The aircraft was performing a scheduled flight from Lavrentiya to Anadyr with a final stopover in Uelkal after an overnight stay. On the morning of 9 December at 00:20, the Li-2 with 5 crew members, 7 passengers, and 580 kilograms of cargo on board departed from Uelkal en route to Anadyr. According to the weather forecast, variable cloud cover at an altitude of 600–1,000 meters, a light westerly wind, and 4–6 km visibility were expected along the route. Similar weather conditions were expected in the Anadyr area. The flight was to be conducted at a cruising altitude of 1,500 meters. At 00:27, the crew contacted the dispatcher at Anadyr Airport and, after reporting a visual flight, requested the weather report. At 00:40, the crew contacted the Anadyr dispatcher again and asked if there were any departures from Anadyr to Provideniya Bay. After this, the aircraft L5033 no longer contacted the dispatcher and did not reestablish communication.
The aircraft was found by an organized search 35 kilometers northeast of Anadyr, but the search party did not reach the crash site until 13 December. Flying 8 kilometers off course to the left of the flight path, the airliner, with engines running, crashed into a hill at an altitude of 720 meters on the southwest slope of Mount Ioanna, exploded, and was completely destroyed. All 12 people on board were killed.

Investigation

Analysis

The aircraft was supposed to fly along a valley between two ridges, but as it deviated 8 kilometers to the left, it ended up directly over the Zolotoy Ridge. This could have been avoided if the crew had known their location. However, no bearing records were found in the on-board logbook, and the crew had not requested bearings. Although the dispatcher at Anadyr received messages from aircraft L5033, the airport at Uelkal did not report that the aircraft had taken off until 01:05, when the crash had already occurred. In addition, the crew had entered the Anadyr airport control zone and even had visual contact with Anadyr, but did not inform the dispatcher about entering the zone. The dispatcher, in turn, did not monitor the flight, did not use the radio direction finder, including air defense radars, and did not inquire with the crew about the flight's progress. The commission established that this was standard practice at the airport's dispatch center. Surveys of other aircraft crews revealed that the ridge tops were covered with variable cloud cover and snow. The crew saw the airport and believed they were flying along the correct path over the valley, so they began descending without receiving clearance from the dispatcher. The airliner entered the clouds, after which the pilots unexpectedly collided with the mountain.

Causes

According to the commission, the crash occurred because the aircraft deviated towards the mountains from the assigned flight path, after which the crew, unable to see the mountains obscured by snow and clouds, began to descend. It is likely that when the Li-2 was 100–200 meters above the mountains, it encountered downdrafts, which accelerated the descent. Contributing factors to the crash were the lack of discipline by the check pilot and the poor control of the flight by the dispatcher at Anadyr airport.