Aviation incident in the Soviet Union
The Svetlogorsk An-24 crash was an aviation accident that occurred on May 16, 1972. An An-24T aircraft from the 263rd Separate Transport Aviation Regiment of the Baltic Fleet Air Force was conducting an inspection flight to test radio equipment. However, 15 minutes after takeoff, in difficult weather conditions, it clipped trees and crashed into a kindergarten building in Svetlogorsk. The crash resulted in 35 fatalities: all 2 passengers and 6 crew members on board, as well as 27 people on the ground (24 children and 3 kindergarten staff).
Aircraft.
The An-24T (factory number 9911302, serial number 13-02) was manufactured by the Irkutsk Aviation Plant in 1969. In the same year, it was transferred to the 263rd Separate Transport Aviation Regiment of the Baltic Fleet Air Force, where it was assigned tail number 05. The aircraft was equipped with two Ivchenko AI-24 turboprop engines produced by ZMK "Progress" named after A.G. Ivchenko.
Crew.
The crew of aircraft 05 included:
Additionally, two passengers were on board:
Sequence of Events.
Preceding Circumstances.
On May 13, 1972, Colonel General of Aviation Sergey Gulyayev, the commander of the Baltic Fleet Air Force, approved the flight plan. According to this plan, the flight was to follow the route below:
On May 16, 1972, at 12:15, An-24T aircraft 05 took off from Khrabrovo Airport toward the Baltic Sea. According to the plan, the flight was to be conducted visually at an altitude of 500 meters. However, based on the crew commander’s report, the flight was actually conducted at an altitude of only 50 meters. All stages of the route were intended to be carried out over the sea.
After making a turn over the sea, the aircraft crossed the coastline near Zelenogradsk and set course for Taran Cape. Shortly afterward, aircraft 05 disappeared from radar screens.
The Crash.
At approximately 12:30, aircraft 05 entered thick fog over Svetlogorsk at an unacceptably low altitude. On the steep shore of Svetlogorsk, it clipped the tops of pine trees, causing it to lose part of its wing. The aircraft then flew about 200 meters further, flipped over, and crashed into the building of the Svetlogorsk kindergarten. Upon impact, the second floor of the building was completely destroyed.
As a result of the crash, there was a massive fuel leak, and a severe fire broke out. At the time of the crash, 29 people were inside the kindergarten—most of the children had returned from a walk and were sitting down for lunch. The crash killed all 8 people on board the An-24 (6 crew members and 2 passengers), 24 children aged 2 to 7, and 3 kindergarten staff members: the cook Tamara Yankovskaya, and teachers Valentina Shabashova-Metelitsa (who survived the crash but later died in a military hospital) and Antonina Romanenko (who also survived but died in a military hospital six months later). Of those in the kindergarten, only two survived.
Reaction.
By 21:00 on May 16, less than 9 hours after the crash, the debris had been cleared, and the aircraft wreckage along with the remains of the victims had been removed. By the morning of May 17, a small park had been established on the site of the kindergarten. To minimize public attention, suburban trains were canceled, and road traffic connecting the regional center to Svetlogorsk was restricted on the day of the victims' funerals. Around 10,000 people gathered at the cemetery.
Investigation.
The investigation into the causes of the Svetlogorsk crash was conducted by a Moscow commission headed by Colonel General Nikolai Alekseev, the Deputy Minister of Defense of the USSR for Armaments.
As of July 2019, there has been no official publication of the investigation materials. The publicly stated cause of the crash, which, despite the authorities’ efforts at the time to conceal it, could not be entirely hidden, was described as "unsatisfactory preparation and flight management." No criminal case was initiated in connection with the crash. The internal investigation by the Ministry of Defense of the USSR resulted in a secret order from the Minister of Defense, Andrei Grechko, leading to the dismissal of about 40 military personnel.
There are theories suggesting that the crew lacked sufficient experience. Some sources publish a version, based on documents provided by the former commander of the Baltic Fleet Air Force, Lieutenant General Vasily Proskurnin, that points to a technical malfunction. According to this version, at the time of the collision with the pines, aircraft 05's altimeter indicated an altitude of 150 meters above sea level, while the actual altitude (at the location of the aircraft's collision with the trees) was 42 meters. The error in the altimeter readings is explained by the fact that, the day before the flight, a decision was made within the Baltic Fleet Air Force to replace the altimeters from the Il-14 with those in the An-24. The operability of the altimeters after this replacement was not properly checked. Experiments conducted during the investigation established that the crew of aircraft 05 received data with an error margin of up to 60–70 meters.
Honored test pilot of Russia, Vladimir Biryukov, believes that the pilots either incorrectly set the pressure at takeoff or did not set it at all.
Memorial.
In 1994, a chapel was erected at the crash site with a plaque that reads: "The temple-monument in honor of the icon of the Mother of God 'Joy of All Who Sorrow' was built on the site of the tragic death of the kindergarten on May 16, 1972."
References.
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