Aeroflot Flight 498

Aeroflot Flight 498

An Aeroflot Ilyushin Il-14M, similar to the one involved in the crash
Accident
Date	14 June 1981 (1981-06-14)
Summary	Controlled flight into terrain due to crew error
Site	Holy Nose Peninsula in Lake Baikal, 30 kilometres (19 mi) northwest of Ust-Barguzin, Barguzinsky District, Buryat Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic, Russian SSR, USSR 53°37′N 108°44′E / 53.617°N 108.733°E / 53.617; 108.733
Aircraft
Aircraft type	Ilyushin Il-14M
Operator	Aeroflot
Registration	CCCP-41838
Flight origin	Severomuysk
Stopover	Nizhneangarsk Airport
Destination	Baikal International Airport
Occupants	48
Passengers	44
Crew	4
Fatalities	48
Survivors	0

Aeroflot Flight 498 was a Soviet domestic passenger flight from Severomuysk to Ulan-Ude that crashed near Lake Baikal on 14 June 1981 en route to its planned stop at Nizhneangarsk Airport, Nizhneangarsk. All 44 passengers—including 13 children—and 4 crew members on board were killed, and the aircraft was destroyed. It remains the deadliest crash involving an Ilyushin Il-14.^[1]

CCCP-41838 was an Ilyushin Il-14M manufactured on 1 January 1957,^[2] with 16,185 total air hours and 18,427 cycles.^[1] The aircraft was equipped with engines registered as B B 29471633 252073177. At the time of the crash it was being operated by the East Siberia Civil Aviation Directorate of Ulan-Ude under Aeroflot.^[2]

The crew consisted of Captain Alex T Mordovia, co-pilot Alexander Lobsonovich Kyrmygenov, and Flight Engineer Alexander Zharnikov. Aeroflot Flight 498 was originally scheduled to fly from Severomuysk to Baikal International Airport in Ulan-Ude, with a planned stopover at Nizhneangarsk Airport in Nizhneangarsk.^[2] The flight had exceeded its takeoff weight capacity by 186 kilograms (410 lb). The aircraft left from Severomuysk at 09:41 MSK.^[3]

Due to bad weather, Nizhneangarsk Airport closed, and the crew rerouted the aircraft to land at an airfield in nearby Ust-Barguzin. Mountains surrounding Lake Baikal were at that time obscured by the cloud cover, and visibility was only about 5 kilometres (3.1 mi) with rain and winds of up to 5 metres per second (11 mph). Foggy conditions and low visibility were likewise reported on Holy Nose Peninsula, what would later become the aircraft's crash site.^[2] At 10:30 MSK, almost an hour after takeoff, the crew reported a nearby flight, and at 10:41 began communications with the air tower at Ulan-Barguzin in preparation for landing. Conditions around the Ust-Barguzin airfield were slightly more favorable than had been projected at the aircraft's height. At 11:02 the aircraft called in to report their location, but in violation of air rules, the crew instead called the air control tower at Ulan-Ude and did not report back to Ust-Barguzin. Additionally, they did not report their location or weather conditions.^[3] The aircraft's data finder, ARP-6, was found to be unstable, about which the Ust-Barguzin air tower warned Flight 498 well in advance.^[2] Due to the faulty equipment, the flight deviated to the right from its course about 32 kilometres (20 mi). At 11:16, the aircraft descended from a height of 3,600 metres (11,800 ft) to 2,700 metres (8,900 ft).^[3] Shortly before the crash, the flight crew intentionally misinformed^[1] the flight deck that the airfield was in sight,^[4] and the air tower gave them visual instructions on landing; the crew accepted these instructions at 11:21, without actually being in sight of the air field. The pilot then mistook the Holy Nose Peninsula for the location of the air field.^[3]

At 11:22 MSK, the aircraft crashed 1,300 metres (4,300 ft) above sea level on the side of a mountain located on the Holy Nose Peninsula in Lake Baikal, about 30 kilometres (19 mi) from the Ust-Barguzin airfield. The flight crashed at a 10-degree angle to the left and an angle of trajectory of 2 or 3 degrees.^[2] All 48 people—44 passengers (including 13 children) and 4 crew members—were killed during the crash, and the aircraft was a total loss. Much of the equipment was destroyed in the crash, making the exact cause of the accident difficult to pinpoint.^[1][3] Among this equipment was the radio compass ARC-5, making its efficiency impossible to determine.^[2] Ultimately, the crash was attributed to passive piloting and pilot error.^[1]