Aeroflot Flight 2230

Aeroflot Flight 2230

An Aeroflot Ilyushin Il-18, similar to the accident aircraft
Accident
Date	16 November 1967 (1967-11-16)
Summary	Engine failure and fire followed by an electrical failure of cockpit instruments
Site	2.9 km (1.8 mi) east of Koltsovo Airport
Aircraft
Aircraft type	Ilyushin Il-18V
Operator	Aeroflot
Registration	CCCP-75538
Flight origin	Koltsovo Airport, Yekaterinburg
Destination	Tashkent Yuzhny Airport, Tashkent
Passengers	99
Crew	8
Fatalities	107
Survivors	0

Aeroflot Flight 2230 was a Soviet domestic passenger flight from Yekaterinburg (then Sverdlovsk) to Tashkent. On 16 November 1967, the Ilyushin Il-18 aircraft serving the flight crashed after takeoff, killing all 107 people aboard (including twelve children). At the time, it was the deadliest aviation accident in the Russian SFSR and the worst accident involving the Il-18.

Aircraft

The flight was serviced by an Ilyushin Il-18V turboprop airliner, manufactured on 25 March 1964 with a serial number 184007002. The aircraft made its maiden flight and commenced operations in the same year. On the day of the accident it had 5,326 flight hours, or 2,111 flight cycles.

Crew

The crew consisted of the pilot in command Yuri Abaturov, co-pilot Nikolai Mikhaylov, navigating officer Anatoly Zagorsky, flight engineer Viktor Ospishchev and radio officer Yuri Yefremov.

Accident

The aircraft was cleared for takeoff from Koltsovo Airport at 21:02 local time. When an engine caught fire and its propeller would not feather, the amount of drag it caused resulted in a sharp right turn while climbing at a speed of 340–350 km/h (180–190 kn), at an altitude of 140–150 m (460–490 ft) and began to rapidly descend, striking the ground, with a horizontal velocity of 440 km/h (240 kn) and a vertical speed of 20 m/s (66 ft/s), in a ploughed field, with a 37-degree right bank. The aircraft completely disintegrated, complicating the subsequent accident investigation. There were also fire outbreaks at the crash site.

The investigation said that the crash resulted from a wrong indication of the main artificial horizons and the compass system due to an electrical failure and that the flight crew was unable to determine the correct altitude.