What happened
During the second leg of a flight path spanning Gomel, Donetsk, and Sochi, an aviation accident occurred under conditions of restricted visibility caused by heavy cloud cover. At an altitude of approximately 5,700 metres, a Yakovlev Yak-40, operating under registration CCCP-87772, collided with another aircraft. The Yak-40 was performing a flight from Rostov-on-Don to Kerch with 18 passengers and crew on board.
Following the impact, both aircraft entered a descent into a dive and crashed into the Black Sea, roughly 37 km south of Anapa. The wreckage of both planes settled at a depth of approximately 500 metres. The accident resulted in 70 fatalities, with no survivors reported from either aircraft.
Findings
Investigations into the accident identified that the primary cause was errors made by an air traffic controller managing the western sector of the Krasnodar region. The controller failed to adhere to established protocols and did not maintain the mandatory minimum separation of 600 metres between the two aircraft before transferring them to the Anapa sector control. Additionally, poor coordination between different air traffic control sectors and reduced visibility due to significant cloud cover were identified as contributing factors.