Aeroflot Flight 105

Aeroflot Flight 105

Il-12 of Aeroflot
Accident
Date	9 June 1958 (1958-06-09)
Summary	ATC and crew errors, CFIT
Site	16.5 km south of Magadan-13 Airport 59°28′25″N 150°53′17″E
Aircraft
Aircraft type	Ilyushin Il-12P
Operator	Aeroflot (Far Eastern TU GVF, 198 AO)
Registration	CCCP-Л1364
Flight origin	Khabarovsk Novy Airport, Khabarovsk
Stopover	Okhotsk Airport, Okhotsk
Destination	Magadan-13 Airport, Magadan
Occupants	24
Passengers	20
Crew	4
Fatalities	24
Survivors	0

Aeroflot Flight 105 was an aviation accident involving an Ilyushin Il-12P aircraft operated by Aeroflot, which occurred on June 9, 1958 near Magadan, resulting in the deaths of 24 people.

Aircraft

The Il-12P, with serial number 30082 and manufacturing number 082, was built by the "Banner of Labor" factory (Moscow) in 1947. The airliner received the registration number USSR-L1364 and was transferred to the Main Directorate of the Civil Air Fleet under the Council of Ministers of the USSR, which in turn assigned it to the Vnukovo Aviation Unit of the Moscow Territorial Administration of the Civil Air Fleet. In 1949, the USSR-L1364 aircraft was transferred to the 198th (1st Khabarovsk) Aviation Unit of the Far Eastern Territorial Administration of the Civil Air Fleet. The aircraft had accumulated a total of 11,103 flight hours.

Crew

• Pilot in command — Fedor Vasilyevich Kapitulin
• Co-pilot — Fedor Fedorovich Ivanov
• Flight engineer — Stefan Samuilovich Selivon
• Radio operator — Alexei Alekseyevich Isaev

Accident

The aircraft was operating regular passenger flight 105 from Khabarovsk to Magadan with an intermediate stop in Okhotsk. The flight proceeded without deviations until Okhotsk. In Okhotsk, the crew received a weather forecast for Magadan: continuous with breaks (7-10 tenths) stratocumulus and nimbostratus cloud cover with a base of 300–600 meters, calm wind, rain, and visibility ranging from 4 to 10 kilometers. At 01:16, with 20 passengers and 4 crew members on board, flight 105 departed from Okhotsk and after climbing, leveled off at an altitude of 2,400 meters.

At 02:20, the crew reported to the dispatcher about passing over Balagannoye and received clearance to enter the Magadan Airport zone. At 02:30, the crew established communication with the airport's dispatch service and reported flying in clouds at an altitude of 2,400 meters, to which the flight director granted permission to descend first to 1,800 meters and then to 1,500 meters. At 02:48, the crew reported passing over the beacon, and the flight director granted permission to descend and break through the clouds according to the established procedure. Later, during questioning, the flight director stated that he provided the crew with landing conditions and weather information, including the cloud base at 600 meters. However, according to the recorded communications between the dispatcher and the crew, this was not done. The crew no longer responded to calls or made contact.

Over Magadan, the sky was indeed covered with clouds with a base of 300 meters, it was raining, and visibility was 6 kilometers. When the commander received permission to break through the clouds, he descended to 600 meters according to the procedure. However, during the approach, the aircraft for an unknown reason deviated from the assigned course and was now heading towards the mountains. Flying through the clouds at a height of only 300 meters, the commander saw a bay through the breaks in the clouds. Believing it to be Gertner Bay, the crew continued descending and entered the clouds. In reality, the bay they saw was Vesyolaya, which is several kilometers south. At 02:50 (11:50 local time), the Il-12 flying in the clouds at an altitude of 430 meters clipped the tops of several trees, and then, 16.5 kilometers south of the airport, crashed into the Marchekan Hill on the Staritsky Peninsula. Skidding along the slope for 130 meters through trees and rocks and climbing to an altitude of 500 meters above sea level, the airliner was completely destroyed, and all 24 people on board perished.

This was the deadliest aviation disaster in Magadan Oblast. A symbolic wooden cross has since been erected at the crash site.

Causes

According to the investigative commission, the primary cause of the accident was a gross violation by air traffic controllers for not adhering to the weather minimums of Magadan-13 Airport, according to which the minimum cloud base was 600 meters, and visibility was 4 kilometers. The actual cloud base was 300 meters, which is twice below the weather minimum, yet the airport was not closed for aircraft reception. Contributing to the disaster was also the fact that the commander began the approach under weather conditions below the minimum and deviated from the established procedure during the cloud break.