What happened
During a routine mission for the "Put' Kommunizma" collective farm, an aircraft was conducting agricultural spraying operations in the Pushkino district of Azerbaijan. The flight was being operated by a crew consisting of two pilots and one local guide. While the aircraft was maintaining a cruising altitude between 40 and 50 meters, the occupants observed a flock of birds in their path.
Shortly after this observation, several birds collided with the engine. This impact led to an immediate loss of engine power. In an attempt to manage the emergency, the crew sought to perform an unplanned landing on a nearby road. However, the aircraft was unable to reach the roadway and instead descended into a cotton field located approximately 12 km from Pushkino. Upon impact with the ground, the plane caught fire. The accident resulted in three fatalities, as all occupants on board were killed.
Findings
Investigations into the crash determined that the primary factor was an in-flight collision with birds. Specifically, the impact of the birds damaged the air intake of the carburetor and struck cylinders number 1, 7, 8, and 9. This sequence of mechanical damage caused the engine to fail, which subsequently led to a critical loss of airspeed and altitude, making a controlled descent impossible.