Tupolev ANT-7 (PS-7) accident at Bolshie Goryachiye Klyuchy, Russia, 15 Aug 1942 (CCCP-L2957)

Accident narrative

On June 28, the crew departed Khabarovsk on a flight to Petropavlovsk-Kamtchatsky. After a flight of 17 hours, the airplane landed in Ust-Khayriuzovo. No fuel was available there and the crew waited 31 days to obtain fuel. On August 15, the airplane took off from Ust-Khayriuzovo at 1202LT bound for Petropavlovsk-Kamtchatsky. About two hours into the flight, the engine started to misfire. The flight engineer modified the fuel selector without success. After the engine stopped, the pilot attempted an emergency landing when the airplane crashed on a hill located 53 km west of Petropavlovsk-Kamtchatsky. The copilot was killed, the radio operator broke a leg and both other crew members escaped unhurt.

Probable cause (official findings): Engine failure caused by a fuel exhaustion. It was determined that the crew incorrectly determined the amount of fuel in the various tanks (900 kilos at the time of departure from Ust-Khayriuzovo) and failed to make a refueling stop at Ust-Bolsheretsk, in the southwest coast of the peninsula.