What happened
A cargo flight traveling from St Petersburg to Nalcik, which included a scheduled stop in Volgograd, crashed while attempting to land. The aircraft was transporting a significant load of 12.5 tons of coins produced in St Petersburg, along with seven passengers and six crew members.
During the final approach phase, approximately 8 km from the destination airport, the aircraft was traveling at a speed of 260 km/h with the flaps set to a 35° angle. Roughly thirty seconds later, the flight experienced unstable longitudinal oscillations, characterized by pitching up and down, before the nose rose to a 15° angle. Following this, the aircraft entered an uncontrolled descent.
The plane struck an open field located 4.5 km before the runway threshold. At the moment of impact, the aircraft was descending at a 55° nose-down angle at a speed of 414 km/h. The force of the collision caused the aircraft to disintegrate. There were 13 fatalities among the occupants of the aircraft.
Findings
The aircraft experienced an uncontrolled descent following a period of unstable pitching behavior during the final approach.