Volga-Dnepr Airlines

Antonov AN-124

The four engine airplane departed Seoul-Incheon Airport on a cargo flight to Vienna, with an intermediate stop in Novosibirsk, carrying 14 crew members and a load consisting of 84 tons of automobile parts. Shortly after takeoff from runway 25 at Novosibirsk-Tolmachevo Airport, while in initial climb, a catastrophic failure occurred on the engine n°2. Several debris punctured the fuselage, damaging slats on both left and right side. As a result, radio communications were cut, the power supply failed and the thrust control on all three remaining engines dropped. The crew entered a circuit for an immediate return despite the aircraft was in an overweight condition for an emergency landing. After touchdown on runway 25 that offered an LDA of 3,597 metres, the crew started the braking procedure but the aircraft was unable to stop within the remaining distance. It overran, lost its both nose gears and slid in a snow covered field before coming to rest 300 metres further. All 14 occupants evacuated safely and the aircraft seems to be damaged beyond repair.

Antonov AN-12

The aircraft departed Simferopol on a positioning flight to Skopje, carrying two passengers and six crew members. In Skopje, a load of automobile spare parts should be loaded and the aircraft was then scheduled to continue to Ukraine. A second AN-12 from the same operator approached Skopje few minutes prior to the accident and its crew decided to divert to Sofia Airport due to poor weather conditions (thunderstorm activity and heavy rain falls) at destination. On approach to Skopje, the crew modified his route to avoid the thunderstorm and followed a wrong heading of 230° instead of the planned 163°. Few minutes later, the crew was cleared for an approach to runway 34 and followed heading 140°. At an altitude of 5,200 feet on approach, the aircraft struck the slope of Mt Lisec (1,934 metres high) located 26 km south of runway 34 threshold. The wreckage was found at an altitude of 1,600 metres and all 8 occupants were killed.