What happened
During a nighttime approach to Krasnovodsk Airport, the aircraft experienced a significant loss of airspeed and altitude. While flying at approximately 300 meters above ground level and roughly 5 km from the runway, the speed decreased from 260 km/h to 200 km/h, accompanied by a descent rate of 2.5 meters per second. Despite attempts by the crew to stabilize the aircraft's configuration, the plane continued to lose altitude.
The aircraft eventually struck a rocky cliff on the Caspian Sea shoreline at an altitude of 159 meters and approximately 4,700 meters before the runway threshold. The impact occurred at a speed of 150 km/h, causing the right wing and right engine to be severed from the fuselage. After bouncing off the terrain, the aircraft settled into a fire. The accident resulted in 23 fatalities (comprising two crew members and 21 passengers) and 15 injuries.
Findings
Investigations concluded that the primary cause of the accident was orographic turbulence encountered during the final approach, which featured wind speeds of approximately 30 meters per second. This weather phenomenon caused the sudden drop in airspeed and altitude that the crew could not counteract.
Several contributing factors were identified:
- The meteorologist lacked sufficient understanding of this specific climatic phenomenon.
- There was no onboard or ground-based system available to detect such turbulence.
- The flight crew lacked sufficient experience operating in these particular atmospheric conditions.