What happened
A cargo flight operating a four-engine aircraft departed from Magadan Airport, destined for Irkutsk, with a payload of 11 tons of fish. The flight was manned by a crew of seven, including one loadmaster. To avoid the costs associated with an extra stop, the crew opted to bypass a scheduled refueling at Lensk Airport, intending to fly directly to Bratsk.
Upon reaching Bratsk, the crew encountered deteriorating weather conditions that prevented a safe landing. In an effort to reach the final destination and conserve remaining fuel, the captain elected to proceed to Irkutsk. During the flight, the crew manually shut down engines number 1 and 4 to reduce fuel consumption. However, the remaining fuel supply was insufficient for the duration of the flight, and engines number 2 and 3 subsequently failed due to fuel exhaustion.
While descending, the crew attempted to find a suitable landing site and identified an open field approximately 48 km from Irkutsk Airport. The aircraft performed a belly landing, sliding for several dozen meters before the fuselage broke into two pieces. Despite the impact, all seven occupants survived the accident without injury.
Findings
- The decision to skip the refueling stop at Lensk Airport to save costs directly contributed to the lack of fuel reserves.
- The manual shutdown of two engines to conserve fuel left the aircraft vulnerable when the remaining fuel was depleted.