Accident Summary
In the early morning, the crew took off with an aircraft that was not airworthy to conduct a survey mission for fire fighting. No flight plan was filed, and the crew continued the mission without any contact with air traffic control. Approaching Novoternovskiy, weather conditions worsened, and horizontal visibility dropped to 10 meters due to thick fog. The crew reduced altitude to 5 meters in an attempt to establish visual contact with the ground. The pilot saw the structure of an irrigation complex and, at a height of 5 meters, made a steep left turn at an angle of 45° to avoid a collision. The aircraft plunged to the earth and crashed in a field, bursting into flames. The aircraft was totally destroyed, and both occupants were killed.
Probable Cause
The official investigation determined that the accident resulted from the combination of the following factors:
- The pilots decided to carry out the mission without filing any flight plan, without authorization from ATC, and without information related to the weather conditions.
- The aircraft was operated with documents that were not up to date; its certificate of airworthiness had expired since October 2000, and it was no longer on the Russian Federation Civil Aircraft Registry.
- The pilot-in-command was not authorized to fly as a captain and was flying for the first time following a long hiatus.