Aeroflot Flight Sh-4
On September 3, 1970, a Yakovlev Yak-40, operating Aeroflot Flight Sh-4, collided with Mount Airy-Tash in the Tajik Soviet Socialist Republic, a constituent republic of the Soviet Union. The crash resulted in 21 fatalities and was the first fatal accident and hull loss of a Yak-40.
Aircraft
The Yak-40, registration CCCP-87690, was manufactured at the Saratov Aviation Plant on March 1, 1969, and was transferred to the Ministry of Civil Aviation of the USSR, which on March 12 sent the aircraft to the Dushanbe Aviation Unit of the Tajik Civil Aviation Directorate. The aircraft had the maximum capacity of 24 passengers. At the time of the accident, the aircraft had accumulated 1020 flight hours and 1344 cycles.Accident
Flight Sh-4, being operated by the Yak-40, was flying the first leg by the flight crew of the 186th squadron, consisting of commander (PIC) V. F. Sutormin, first officer G. V. Karpov, and flight engineer V. T. Shashkina. The aircraft had 18 passengers onboard the flight. The aircraft departed Frunzensky Airport at 20:24, reaching the assigned altitude of.After the aircraft flew over the Toktogul Dam, the controller instructed the flight to descend to 5,700 meters. After descending to the instructed altitude, the aircraft began to deviate 30-50 kilometers north. The crew contacted the dispatcher of Kokand about the flight path of flying over the towns of Namangan and Kokand. At the same time, the controller failed to inspect where the flight was on the radar and did not know where its position was but gave permission to descend to 3,300 meters. The crew of the Yak-40 followed the instructions, descending into the height of the mountains, which was higher than the aircraft’s altitude. The dispatcher in Kokand had instructed the captain to contact Leninabad Airport; without warning the dispatcher in Leninabad and the aircraft’s crew, there was no radar contact within the area.
The crew did not realize that the aircraft had deviated to the west from the flight route. The crew radioed to ATC that they had passed over the towns of Namangan and Kokand. At 21:21, Leninabad ATC cleared the crew to descend to and then, although they did not know the exact position of the aircraft
At 21:26, the flight, flying at 2100 meters at a speed of, struck the side of Mount Airy-Tash at an altitude of 2,300 meters and was destroyed on impact, killing the 21 occupants onboard.