What happened
During a routine flight originating from Ulyanovsk, the flight crew initiated their descent toward Moscow-Domodedovo Airport. While performing the standard approach procedures, the crew identified that the nose landing gear had failed to deploy and remained trapped within the wheel well.
Despite multiple efforts by the crew to manually actuate the gear into the locked position, the mechanism remained non-functional. Consequently, the decision was made to perform a landing with the nose gear retracted on runway 31L. After circling the airfield for approximately 45 minutes to prepare for the arrival, the aircraft touched down. Upon contact with the runway, the nose of the plane made contact with the surface, causing the aircraft to slide for several dozen meters before coming to a complete stop.
Findings
- The aircraft sustained substantial damage that rendered it a total loss.
- There were no fatalities among the 31 occupants on board, all of whom evacuated the aircraft without injury.