Background
Armavia Flight RNV 967 was a passenger flight from Zvartnots Airport in Yerevan, Armenia, to Adler Airport in Sochi, Russia. The aircraft, an Airbus A320 registered EK-32009, carried 105 passengers (including five children and one baby), two pilots, five flight attendants, and one engineer, totaling 113 occupants. The crew passed a pre-flight medical examination at 19:30 on 2 May 2006 and had a pre-flight rest period exceeding 24 hours. The airplane's takeoff weight and center of gravity were within limitations.
Flight
The aircraft took off from Zvartnots at 20:47. The climb and cruise were uneventful. At 21:10, the crew contacted Sochi approach control. After discussing weather, the crew initially decided to return to Yerevan, but later, after receiving updated weather showing visibility 3,600 meters and cloud ceiling 170 meters at 21:30, they decided to continue to Sochi. The approach controller cleared the aircraft to descend to 1,800 meters and reported weather above aerodrome minimum for runway 06. The crew was handed over to the holding and tower controllers and cleared to descend to 600 meters. While turning to final, the aircraft overshot the extended runway centerline but corrected and began descending along the glide slope. At 22:10, the crew reported gear extension and readiness for landing. The controller cleared them to land, but about 30 seconds later advised that the cloud ceiling was observed at 100 meters and instructed the crew to stop descent, execute a right turn, and climb to 600 meters. The last communication was at 22:12:35, and the aircraft struck the water at 22:13:03, resulting in its destruction and sinking.
Probable Cause
The fatal crash of the Armavia A320 EK-32009 was a CFIT accident that happened due to collision with the water while carrying-out a climbing manoeuvre after an aborted approach to Sochi airport at night with weather conditions below the established minima for runway 06. While performing the climb with the autopilot disengaged, the Captain, being in a psychoemotional stress condition, made nose down control inputs due to the loss of pitch and roll awareness. This started the abnormal situation. Subsequently the Captain's inputs in the pitch channel were insufficient to prevent development of the abnormal situation into the catastrophic one. Along with the inadequate control inputs of the Captain, the contributing factors to development of the abnormal situation into the catastrophic one were also the lack of necessary monitoring of the aircraft descent parameters (pitch attitude, altitude, vertical speed) by the co-pilot and the absence of proper reaction by the crew to the EGPWS warning.