The An-124 crash in Irkutsk on December 6, 1997, became one of the most terrible in modern Russian history: the fall of the heavy military transport aircraft An-124 "Ruslan" on a residential sector took the lives of 72 people. Before the tragedy, the giant suffered the failure of three engines at once.
Fatal Sequence
Then, "Ruslan," barely rising above the runway of the Irkutsk Aviation Plant, lost thrust in three of the four D-18T engines at once. The crew tried to keep the machine under control, but control was virtually lost, and the heavy aircraft crashed into residential buildings.
For many residents of Irkutsk, this date is still a day of personal grief. The disaster destroyed several families and left a deep mark on the history of Russian aviation.
Aircraft and Crew: Experience That Did Not Save
The plane was far from being a novice. Built in 1985, it served in Aeroflot, then in the USSR Air Force. By December 1997, the "Ruslan" had 576 cycles and 1034 flight hours, being within its operational life.
On board were 9 crew members and 14 passengers accompanying the cargo: two Su-27 fighters, which were to be sent to Vietnam. Commander Lieutenant Colonel Vladimir Fedorov had 2,800 flight hours, co-pilot Mikhail Bryukhanov had more than 4,000. But even their experience proved powerless against the almost complete de-energizing of the aircraft after the cascading failure of three engines.
Causes of the Disaster
The cause of the emergency is still the subject of numerous disputes. In 2014, the former head of the Air Force Flight Safety Service, Major General of Aviation Boris Tumanov, reported that the failure of three engines occurred as a result of surge caused by their design defect - low gas-dynamic stability.
Tumanov clarified that engine No. 1 failed 6 seconds after takeoff, engine No. 2 - another 6 seconds later, and engine No. 3 - 2 seconds later.
That December day took many lives. This includes the crew of the plane, the residents of the houses, and the pupils of the social institution. Many children were just beginning to live. Now there is the Church of the Nativity of Christ at the site of the tragedy. Every year people come here, whose lives have been affected by this disaster.
The disaster became a point of no return - the standards for monitoring the condition of D-18T engines were revised, and maintenance regulations were tightened. The tragedy is still considered an example of how a single failure can lead to a catastrophic collapse of the entire system.