What happened
While performing agricultural spraying duties for the 'Vrachevo Gorki' state farm in the Lukhovitsy district of the Moscow region, an aircraft encountered heavy smoke originating from nearby peatland fires. The visibility during this period was severely restricted, with horizontal sightlines measuring no more than 50 meters.
As the crew navigated through the smoke, they experienced a loss of spatial orientation. This led to the aircraft pitching forward at an angle between 45 and 60 degrees. The plane subsequently impacted the banks of the Oka River, near Perevitskiy Torzhok, approximately 4 km from its intended airstrip. The impact was followed by a fire that completely destroyed the aircraft. There were 2 fatalities among the crew.
Findings
Investigation into the accident determined that the primary factor was the crew's loss of control caused by spatial disorientation while operating in conditions of extremely low visibility.