Azerbaijan Airlines Flight 217

Azerbaijan Airlines Flight 217 was a scheduled passenger flight between Baku and Aktau, Kazakhstan that crashed into the Caspian Sea at ca. 22:40 on 23 December 2005. The flight was operated by an Antonov An-140.

Accident

Around five minutes after a night-time departure from Baku Airport, the crew reported a systems failure. Heading over the Caspian Sea at night without flight instruments made it difficult for the crew to judge their flight parameters. Whilst attempting to return to Baku, the aircraft crashed shortly afterwards on the shore of the Caspian Sea, killing all 23 passengers and crew on board.

Azerbaijan Airlines suspended flights operated by its remaining Antonov An-140s and cancelled plans to order two more aircraft of the same make.

It seemed the aircraft had taken off "with caged gyro horizons". Investigations from the Kharkiv State Aircraft Manufacturing Company found that during the climb, the aircraft's three independent gyroscopes had failed and were not providing stabilised pitch, roll, heading, and altitude performance information to the crew.