Incident Overview
On a local test flight at Kiev-Gostomel Airport, the crew—comprising pilots, technicians, and engineers—were conducting a mission to test the JATO propulsion system for the Antonov AN-8, which had been renamed the AN-8RU version for this program. Twenty seconds after takeoff, while climbing to a speed of 220 km/h, the JATO system was ignited. Six seconds later, once the speed reached 264 km/h, the left engine was voluntarily shut down. At this time, the crew was unable to feather the propeller, which went into auto-rotation.
Sequence of Events
The aircraft banked left to a 70–80° angle, then dove into the ground and crashed in a field located 1,850 meters past the runway end. The aircraft was totally destroyed. All seven crew members were killed.
Official Findings
The probable cause, as determined by the official investigation, states: The exact cause of the accident could not be determined with certainty. However, the crew encountered difficulties, was unable to and/or forgot to feather the propeller on the left engine. This caused asymmetric thrust and high drag, which made the aircraft uncontrollable and led to the crash.