What happened
A flight operated by KrasAir, traveling from Norilsk with scheduled stops at Podkamenaya Tunguska and Shushenskoye, ended in a crash landing near its destination. The aircraft was transporting 23 passengers and 4 crew members at the time of the incident. As the flight approached Shushenskoye, the crew encountered severe weather characterized by heavy snowfall, which reduced visibility to approximately 400 metres.
Due to the degraded visual conditions, the crew lost situational awareness and could not identify the airport. In an effort to perform an emergency landing, the pilot brought the aircraft down in the taiga, roughly 18 km away from the runway. While the aircraft type was destroyed in the accident, all 27 occupants were successfully rescued from the site. Among the survivors, one passenger sustained minor injuries.
Findings
- The primary factor in the accident was poor visibility caused by snowfall, which prevented the crew from maintaining visual contact with the airfield and led to spatial disorientation.