What happened
During an agricultural mission involving the spraying of herbicides over crops in the Balakhta region, an aircraft crashed into a field approximately 7 km west of the area. The flight was part of a series of rotations; prior to the accident, the crew had successfully completed 11 cycles without incident. During a scheduled 40-minute break between missions, the pilots consumed a significant amount of alcohol.
At 0825LT, the aircraft departed for its 12th rotation. While maintaining an altitude of roughly 100 meters, the aircraft's airspeed dropped significantly, leading to an aerodynamic stall. The impact resulted in four fatalities, including both pilots and two passengers.
Findings
Investigations into the crash identified that the aircraft stalled due to insufficient airspeed while flying at a low altitude. A major contributing factor was the heavy consumption of alcohol by the flight crew during the interval between flight rotations, which left them in an intoxicated state during the final mission.