What happened
During an Arctic expedition known as 'Sever 7', an aircraft was performing a flight from Mys Zhelaniya in the Novaya Zemlya region toward Dikson Island. As part of the mission, the crew received instructions to conduct a landing on the ice surface near Mys Zhelaniya for training purposes.
As the aircraft proceeded with its landing run, the skis of the landing gear penetrated the ice layer. While all 10 occupants (consisting of 7 crew members and 3 passengers) managed to evacuate the aircraft without injury, the vessel could not be salvaged. On 06 April 1955, during a subsequent storm, the aircraft sank.
Findings
Investigations into the incident revealed that the primary reason for the gear breaking through the surface was that the ice thickness was only approximately 30 cm, which provided insufficient structural support for the landing weight.