What happened
During a nighttime cruise at an altitude of approximately 7,800 meters, the aircraft experienced a total failure of its 36-volt electrical system. This malfunction resulted in the loss of several critical flight instruments, including the gyroscopes. Following this equipment failure, the crew lost control of the aircraft, which entered a steep descent at a 70-degree nose-down angle.
The plane eventually struck an open field situated roughly 150 meters from the village of Verkhnyaya Khava, located about 50 kilometers northeast of Voronezh. The force of the impact caused the aircraft to disintegrate, with some wreckage buried as deep as 14 meters into the ground. There were 111 fatalities among the occupants of the aircraft.
Findings
The investigation determined that the failure of the electrical system directly incapacitated the automatic pilot and essential navigational instruments. Because the flight was occurring at night under cloud cover, the lack of functional gyros prevented the crew from maintaining visual references. This loss of instrumentation led to spatial disorientation, making it impossible for the crew to recover control of the aircraft before impact.