What happened
During a ferry flight departing Moscow for St. Petersburg, an Il-86, registration RA-86060, experienced a critical malfunction shortly after departure. The aircraft was transitioning between locations following a completed charter service from Sochi. The flight was operated with 16 crew members on board, including 10 staff members of the operating company.
Two seconds after departing runway 07L, while the aircraft had reached an altitude of approximately 200 meters, the stabilizers unexpectedly moved to a full up position of 12°. This sudden movement caused the nose of the plane to pitch upward into a super critical angle of attack. Although the crew attempted to recover by pushing the control column forward, the aircraft entered a stall. The plane subsequently crashed approximately 700 meters beyond the runway threshold, resulting in a massive explosion. The accident resulted in 14 fatalities and two injuries.
Findings
Investigators were unable to reach a definitive conclusion regarding the exact cause of the accident because the fire at the crash site almost entirely destroyed both the primary and reserve stabilizer control system units. Furthermore, critical data regarding the stabilizer systems was missing from the flight data recorder, and there was a lack of relevant cockpit voice recorder commentary.
However, investigators noted that an electrical failure in the stabilizer control system could have triggered the reverse response during manual adjustments. Another possibility considered was improper pilot input, specifically the accidental or continuous pressing of the pitch-up stabilizer switch on the control column.