Accident
On approach to Skopje Airport, an Antonov An-12 departed Simferopol on a positioning flight to Skopje, carrying two passengers and six crew members. The aircraft was scheduled to load automobile spare parts in Skopje and continue to Ukraine. A second AN-12 from the same operator had approached Skopje minutes earlier but diverted to Sofia Airport due to poor weather conditions, including thunderstorm activity and heavy rainfall.
The crew of the accident aircraft modified their route to avoid the thunderstorm and followed a wrong heading of 230° instead of the planned 163°. Later, they were cleared for an approach to runway 34 and followed heading 140°. At an altitude of 5,200 feet, the aircraft struck the slope of Mount Lisec (1,934 meters high), located 26 km south of runway 34 threshold. The wreckage was found at an altitude of 1,600 meters. All eight occupants were killed.
Investigation
The official investigation determined that the accident was a controlled flight into terrain. The crew continued the approach in poor weather conditions without visual contact with the ground and unaware of their exact position.
Contributing factors reported include:
- Extremely difficult and unfavorable weather conditions with thunderstorm activity and heavy rainfall.
- No call-out during the approach.
- Information regarding weather deterioration was not efficiently transmitted to the crew.
- Poor ATC assistance.
- The crew was unable to effectively use its Distance Measuring Equipment, either due to its failure or a momentary shutdown of the ground equipment, possibly after switching to an emergency power unit.
- The crew's decision to continue the approach and their failure to initiate a go-around procedure.
Probable Cause
Controlled flight into terrain after the crew decided to continue the approach in poor weather conditions without visual contact with the ground and unaware of his exact position. The following contributing factors were reported: - Weather conditions were extremely difficult and unfavorable with the presence of thunderstorm activity and heavy rain falls, - No call-out during the approach, - Information regarding weather deterioration were not efficiently transmitted to the crew, - Poor ATC assistance, - The crew was unable to effectively use its Distance Measuring equipment either because of its failure or because of a momentary shutdown of the ground equipment, maybe after being switched to an emergency power unit, - The crew's decision to continue the approach and his failure to initiate a go-around procedure.