An-2 RA-71276 Mountain Collision Near Baikonur Pass

Flight and Disappearance A single-engine An-2 RA-71276 departed Kyren Airport in the afternoon carrying four company employees and two pilots. The flight was intended to familiarize the passengers with the area of a planned aviation chemical works for processing silkworms. When the aircraft did not return to Kyren in the evening, search and rescue operations were launched. Those efforts were abandoned after several days because no trace of the aircraft was found. ## Wreckage Discovery More than a year later, on July 24, 2021, a group of tourists discovered the burnt wreckage near Baikonur Pass. The site was in a rocky area at an altitude of 2,780 metres. The aircraft had been destroyed by a post-crash fire, and all six occupants were killed. ## Official Findings The official investigation determined that the accident occurred as a result of a collision with a mountain at an altitude of 2,780 metres above sea level. The impact was perpendicular to the direction of the ridge, whose minimum height was 2,960 metres, under conditions of limited visibility and cloud-covered mountain tops. Contributing factors included the crew's decision to fly over a mountainous area with predicted cloud cover and unfavorable wind conditions, the decision to return to the landing site through the mountain range along an unexplored and previously unused route, operational fatigue from more than 12 hours of work on the day of the accident, and the aircraft being affected by descending air currents on the leeward side of a mountain slope.