Incident Details
An Antonov aircraft departed Yakutsk on a crew training flight. Two approaches and landings were performed using flap settings of 38 and 15 degrees. During the third approach, the captain called for the landing gear to be lowered. The flight engineer moved the landing gear handle from neutral into the "retract" position but did not check for three green lights, failing to notice the mistake.
Sequence of Events
The captain then requested the flaps to be selected at 10 degrees. The aircraft turned onto final approach, but the crew did not carry out the final approach checks and continued after obtaining landing clearance. Fourteen seconds before touchdown, an air traffic controller informed the crew to go around because the landing gear was not down. The captain did not hear this instruction because at that moment height and speed callouts were being made by the flight engineer. Five seconds later, the controller repeated the warning. One of the crew members heard the call and noticed three red lights on the instrument panel. He informed the captain, but it was already too late. The captain added takeoff power, but within three seconds the tail struck the runway. The aircraft skidded about 1,000 meters before coming to rest.
Probable Cause
The official findings stated that the accident was caused by the combination of the following factors: - The erroneous actions of the flight engineer when trying to lower the landing gear, - Failure of the flight crew to conduct the necessary (final approach) checks, - The failure by the crew to check and respond to landing gear warning indications, - The execution of a flight with an incomplete composition of crew, causing additional workload on the flight engineer during the approach (height and speed call outs), - Late commands to go around by the air traffic controller, - On the Yak-40 the landing gear handle moves to the opposite direction for retraction and lowering compared to the Antonov 24 (the flight mechanic had more, and recent, flight experience on the Yakovlev 40 jet), - The large workload and fatigue of the crew during the recent six days before the incident.