Pulkovo Airlines Flight 612
Encyclopedia
Pulkovo Aviation Enterprise Flight 612 was an aircraft that crashed near the Russian border over eastern Ukraine
on August 22, 2006, while en route from Vityazevo Airport
(Anapa
) to Pulkovo Airport
(St. Petersburg). Flight 612 is the third highest death toll of any aviation accident involving a Tupolev Tu-154 after the crash of Aeroflot Flight 3352
and Aeroflot Flight 7425
.
n Tupolev Tu-154M
airliner (registration: RA-85185), flight number 612, operated by Pulkovo Aviation Enterprise
.
The aircraft did not refuel in Anapa
and departed on time. "The Pulkovo Airlines flight departed Anapa as scheduled. All necessary maintenance was performed as required before departure," said Oleg Tolstyh, General Director of Anapa's Vityazevo Airport. Airline records show that the aircraft, manufactured in 1992, has been in service for approximately 24,215 flight hours. It was part of the Sichuan Airlines
fleet until Pulkovo Aviation Enterprise acquired it in 2001. The pilot of the aircraft had over 12,000 hours of flying experience, 6,000 of which were as a pilot of a Tu-154.
reported. "Preliminary data suggests that the plane crashed 45 kilometres (28 mi) north of Donetsk
." Later it was determined that the plane crashed near the village of Sukha Balka.
"At an altitude of 11 500 metres (37,000 feet), the aircraft sent three SOS signals, dropped sharply in altitude and sent another SOS at 3000 metres (9,000 feet)," said Anatoli Samoshin, vice Flight Operations Director at Pulkovo Aviation Enterprise. There were no other communications.
Approximately 260 rescue personnel arrived at the scene which was blocked off by the authorities as the field of debris and bodies was about 400 meters in length. On Wednesday, Ukrainian emergency service personnel concluded their search for bodies, confirming that 170 people perished in the accident. Due to the extensive crash forces and post-accident fires, rescuers believed that it would be very difficult to identify the majority of the victims on site. The aircraft crashed in a swampy area, breaking up on impact. The search for black boxes
, which was interrupted for the night, concluded in the morning when both recorders were found. The flight recorders were later transported to Moscow for analysis.
The crash was witnessed by a local farmer and a young couple seeking shelter from the rain. They told reporters that they saw the aircraft falling out of the sky and that it burst into flames upon hitting the ground. They could see people in a number of seats that were thrown out of the aircraft on impact, but none showed any signs of life. A man living in a nearby village was able to make a short video of the crash with his cell phone.
Early reports suggest that Flight 612 may have been caught in a thunderstorm; immediately prior to the crash, the pilots notified air traffic control that they were experiencing severe turbulence. According to the residents of a nearby town, the weather at the time of the crash was violent enough to cause power outages and cell phone disruptions on the ground. Authorities on the scene have speculated that the aircraft was struck by lightning which may have initiated an onboard fire. However, another theory has since been proposed. Based on various information, including the partially decrypted chat logs from a recovered flight recorder
, crash investigators believe that the aircraft climbed to an altitude higher than the maximum for which it was designed, causing the aircraft to enter into a flat spin
from which it never recovered.
Interstate Aviation Committee after initial decoding of flight recorder
s data issued the following flight safety recommendations: avoid entering thunderstorms, follow all maximum height limitations based on aircraft load and outside air temperature, and to improve pilot training when working in these situations. According to Annex 13 "Aircraft Accident and Incident Investigation" of Chicago Convention
IAC does not issue information to public about people or organisations responsible for a crash — the only goal of an IAC investigation is to improve flight safety. Determining the guilty parties can be done only during trial.
The MAK final report concluded:
The cause of the crash of the Tu-154M RA-85 185 airlines "Pulkovo" was the aircraft entering in manual flight mode, supercritical angles of attack and stall mode with the subsequent transition to a flat spin and collision with the ground with a large vertical velocity. In the absence in the Flight Manual (RLE) and crew training programs of recommendations on peculiarities of piloting in the longitudinal channel in manual mode and using the trim mechanism, and inability to work on the skills of piloting the aircraft in hand mode at high altitudes and angles of attack due to the lack of appropriate simulators, the crew while avoiding area of thunderstorms and turbulence allowed the aircraft to enter pitch oscillations exceeding the operational range of angles of attack. Lack of control over flight speed and not following the instructions of RLE to prevent the aircraft entering stall mode and poor crew coordination allowed the situation to escalate into a catastrophic one.
and said that the liner was carrying eleven crewmembers and 160 passengers, including 40 children." Authorities could not explain the discrepancy with numbers and ask to wait for expert analysis to be completed.
The Russian Ministry of Emergency Situations published a list of passengers travelling on flight 612, which can be found on its website. Out of 159 people, 20 were travelling to Norilsk
through St. Petersburg, and three to Murmansk
. Most of the passengers were members of families travelling back from vacations with children.
Russian website Strana.ru http://www.strana.ru is reporting that one passenger was from the Netherlands
, two from Germany
, one from France
and one from Finland
. The airline has clarified that those 5 passengers had multiple citizenship
in addition to Russian.
Ukraine held a national day of mourning
for the people killed in the plane crash on Wednesday August 23 and shifted celebration of their 15th Independence Day
from August 24 to August 26. Russia held a national day of mourning on Thursday August 24, 2006.
Ukraine
Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It has an area of 603,628 km², making it the second largest contiguous country on the European continent, after Russia...
on August 22, 2006, while en route from Vityazevo Airport
Vityazevo Airport
Anapa Airport , also known as Vityazevo Airport is an airport located in Anapa, Russia. It located near Vityazevo-Airlines and destinations:- External links :* NOAA/NWS weather observations* ASN...
(Anapa
Anapa
Anapa is a town in Krasnodar Krai, Russia, located on the northern coast of the Black Sea near the Sea of Azov. It was originally a seaport for the Natkhuay tribe of the Adyghe people. Population: The town boasts a number of sanatoria and hotels...
) to Pulkovo Airport
Pulkovo Airport
Pulkovo Airport is an international airport serving Saint Petersburg, Russia. It consists of two terminals, Pulkovo-1 and Pulkovo-2 , which are located about and south of the city centre, respectively. The airport serves as a hub for Rossiya Airlines , and as focus city for Nordavia...
(St. Petersburg). Flight 612 is the third highest death toll of any aviation accident involving a Tupolev Tu-154 after the crash of Aeroflot Flight 3352
Aeroflot Flight 3352
Aeroflot Flight 3352 was a Tupolev Tu-154 airline flight on a domestic route from Krasnodar to Novosibirsk, with an intermediate landing in Omsk, in the USSR. While landing at Omsk Airport on 11 October 1984, the aircraft crashed into maintenance vehicles on the runway, killing 174 people on board...
and Aeroflot Flight 7425
Aeroflot Flight 7425
Aeroflot Flight 7425 refers to a Tupolev Tu-154B-2, registration CCCP-85311, that was operating a domestic scheduled Tashkent–Karshi–Orenburg–Leningrad passenger service under the airline's Uzbekistan division, that crashed near Uchkuduk, Uzbek SSR, Soviet Union, while en route its second leg...
.
Aircraft
Flight 612 was a RussiaRussia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
n Tupolev Tu-154M
Tupolev Tu-154
The Tupolev Tu-154 is a three-engine medium-range narrow-body airliner designed in the mid 1960s and manufactured by Tupolev. As the mainstay 'workhorse' of Soviet and Russian airlines for several decades, it serviced over a sixth of the world's landmass and carried half of all passengers flown...
airliner (registration: RA-85185), flight number 612, operated by Pulkovo Aviation Enterprise
Pulkovo Aviation Enterprise
Pulkovo Federal State Unified Aviation Service Company was an airline with its head office in Moskovsky District, Saint Petersburg, Russia. It operated the Pulkovo Airport and was 100% state owned. It was the third largest airline in Russia...
.
The aircraft did not refuel in Anapa
Anapa
Anapa is a town in Krasnodar Krai, Russia, located on the northern coast of the Black Sea near the Sea of Azov. It was originally a seaport for the Natkhuay tribe of the Adyghe people. Population: The town boasts a number of sanatoria and hotels...
and departed on time. "The Pulkovo Airlines flight departed Anapa as scheduled. All necessary maintenance was performed as required before departure," said Oleg Tolstyh, General Director of Anapa's Vityazevo Airport. Airline records show that the aircraft, manufactured in 1992, has been in service for approximately 24,215 flight hours. It was part of the Sichuan Airlines
Sichuan Airlines
Sichuan Airlines Co., Ltd. is a regional airline headquartered on the grounds of Chengdu Shuangliu International Airport in Chengdu, Sichuan in the People's Republic of China, operating mainly scheduled domestic flights out of Chengdu Airport and Chongqing Jiangbei International Airport.- History...
fleet until Pulkovo Aviation Enterprise acquired it in 2001. The pilot of the aircraft had over 12,000 hours of flying experience, 6,000 of which were as a pilot of a Tu-154.
Crash
"On Tuesday, at 15:37 (Moscow Time), a Tu-154 airliner of the St. Petersburg-based Pulkovo Airlines sent an SOS signal and disappeared from radar contact at 15:39 (Moscow Time)," Channel OneChannel One (Russia)
Channel One is the first television channel to broadcast in the Soviet Union. The channel was renamed Ostankino Channel 1 in 1991, after the Soviet Union broke up and the Russian SFSR became the Russian Federation. According to a recent government publication, the Russian government controls 51%...
reported. "Preliminary data suggests that the plane crashed 45 kilometres (28 mi) north of Donetsk
Donetsk
Donetsk , is a large city in eastern Ukraine on the Kalmius river. Administratively, it is a center of Donetsk Oblast, while historically, it is the unofficial capital and largest city of the economic and cultural Donets Basin region...
." Later it was determined that the plane crashed near the village of Sukha Balka.
"At an altitude of 11 500 metres (37,000 feet), the aircraft sent three SOS signals, dropped sharply in altitude and sent another SOS at 3000 metres (9,000 feet)," said Anatoli Samoshin, vice Flight Operations Director at Pulkovo Aviation Enterprise. There were no other communications.
Approximately 260 rescue personnel arrived at the scene which was blocked off by the authorities as the field of debris and bodies was about 400 meters in length. On Wednesday, Ukrainian emergency service personnel concluded their search for bodies, confirming that 170 people perished in the accident. Due to the extensive crash forces and post-accident fires, rescuers believed that it would be very difficult to identify the majority of the victims on site. The aircraft crashed in a swampy area, breaking up on impact. The search for black boxes
Black Box (transportation)
The term black box is a placeholder name used casually to refer to a collection of several different recording devices used in transportation: the flight recorders in aircraft, the event recorder in railway locomotives, the event data recorder in automobiles, message case in ships, and other...
, which was interrupted for the night, concluded in the morning when both recorders were found. The flight recorders were later transported to Moscow for analysis.
The crash was witnessed by a local farmer and a young couple seeking shelter from the rain. They told reporters that they saw the aircraft falling out of the sky and that it burst into flames upon hitting the ground. They could see people in a number of seats that were thrown out of the aircraft on impact, but none showed any signs of life. A man living in a nearby village was able to make a short video of the crash with his cell phone.
Early reports suggest that Flight 612 may have been caught in a thunderstorm; immediately prior to the crash, the pilots notified air traffic control that they were experiencing severe turbulence. According to the residents of a nearby town, the weather at the time of the crash was violent enough to cause power outages and cell phone disruptions on the ground. Authorities on the scene have speculated that the aircraft was struck by lightning which may have initiated an onboard fire. However, another theory has since been proposed. Based on various information, including the partially decrypted chat logs from a recovered flight recorder
Flight recorder
A flight recorder is an electronic recording device placed in an aircraft for the purpose of facilitating the investigation of an aircraft accident or incident. For this reason, flight recorders are required to be capable of surviving the conditions likely to be encountered in a severe aircraft...
, crash investigators believe that the aircraft climbed to an altitude higher than the maximum for which it was designed, causing the aircraft to enter into a flat spin
Spin (flight)
In aviation, a spin is an aggravated stall resulting in autorotation about the spin axis wherein the aircraft follows a corkscrew downward path. Spins can be entered intentionally or unintentionally, from any flight attitude and from practically any airspeed—all that is required is sufficient yaw...
from which it never recovered.
Interstate Aviation Committee after initial decoding of flight recorder
Flight recorder
A flight recorder is an electronic recording device placed in an aircraft for the purpose of facilitating the investigation of an aircraft accident or incident. For this reason, flight recorders are required to be capable of surviving the conditions likely to be encountered in a severe aircraft...
s data issued the following flight safety recommendations: avoid entering thunderstorms, follow all maximum height limitations based on aircraft load and outside air temperature, and to improve pilot training when working in these situations. According to Annex 13 "Aircraft Accident and Incident Investigation" of Chicago Convention
Convention on International Civil Aviation
The Convention on International Civil Aviation, also known as the Chicago Convention, established the International Civil Aviation Organization , a specialized agency of the United Nations charged with coordinating and regulating international air travel...
IAC does not issue information to public about people or organisations responsible for a crash — the only goal of an IAC investigation is to improve flight safety. Determining the guilty parties can be done only during trial.
The MAK final report concluded:
The cause of the crash of the Tu-154M RA-85 185 airlines "Pulkovo" was the aircraft entering in manual flight mode, supercritical angles of attack and stall mode with the subsequent transition to a flat spin and collision with the ground with a large vertical velocity. In the absence in the Flight Manual (RLE) and crew training programs of recommendations on peculiarities of piloting in the longitudinal channel in manual mode and using the trim mechanism, and inability to work on the skills of piloting the aircraft in hand mode at high altitudes and angles of attack due to the lack of appropriate simulators, the crew while avoiding area of thunderstorms and turbulence allowed the aircraft to enter pitch oscillations exceeding the operational range of angles of attack. Lack of control over flight speed and not following the instructions of RLE to prevent the aircraft entering stall mode and poor crew coordination allowed the situation to escalate into a catastrophic one.
Victims
On their corporate website,http://www.pulkovo.ru Pulkovo Aviation Enterprise posted a short statement and passengers list confirming that there were 160 passengers and 10 crew members aboard the aircraft. Among the passengers, 115 were adults and 45 were children under 12 years old. Among the adults, 8 were over 60 (including a 92-year-old woman who flew with one of her grandsons and his wife and two of her great-grandchildren). Earlier reports by the media and by the airline indicated that 159 passengers were on the flight, 39 children under 12 and six infants under 2 years of age. Some other sources reported that plane was carrying 171 people: "The crew sent the May Day signalMayday (distress signal)
Mayday is an emergency procedure word used internationally as a distress signal in voice procedure radio communications. It derives from the French venez m'aider, meaning "come help me"....
and said that the liner was carrying eleven crewmembers and 160 passengers, including 40 children." Authorities could not explain the discrepancy with numbers and ask to wait for expert analysis to be completed.
The Russian Ministry of Emergency Situations published a list of passengers travelling on flight 612, which can be found on its website. Out of 159 people, 20 were travelling to Norilsk
Norilsk
Norilsk is an industrial city in Krasnoyarsk Krai, Russia, located between the Yenisei River and the Taymyr Peninsula. Population: It was granted city status in 1953. It is the northernmost city in Siberia and the world's second largest city north of the Arctic Circle...
through St. Petersburg, and three to Murmansk
Murmansk
Murmansk is a city and the administrative center of Murmansk Oblast, Russia. It serves as a seaport and is located in the extreme northwest part of Russia, on the Kola Bay, from the Barents Sea on the northern shore of the Kola Peninsula, not far from Russia's borders with Norway and Finland...
. Most of the passengers were members of families travelling back from vacations with children.
Russian website Strana.ru http://www.strana.ru is reporting that one passenger was from the Netherlands
Netherlands
The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...
, two from Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
, one from France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
and one from Finland
Finland
Finland , officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country situated in the Fennoscandian region of Northern Europe. It is bordered by Sweden in the west, Norway in the north and Russia in the east, while Estonia lies to its south across the Gulf of Finland.Around 5.4 million people reside...
. The airline has clarified that those 5 passengers had multiple citizenship
Multiple citizenship
Multiple citizenship is a status in which a person is concurrently regarded as a citizen under the laws of more than one state. Multiple citizenships exist because different countries use different, and not necessarily mutually exclusive, citizenship requirements...
in addition to Russian.
Ukraine held a national day of mourning
National day of mourning
A national day of mourning is a day marked by mourning and memorial activities observed among the majority of a country's populace. They are designated by that nation's government...
for the people killed in the plane crash on Wednesday August 23 and shifted celebration of their 15th Independence Day
Independence Day
An Independence Day is an annual event commemorating the anniversary of a nation's assumption of independent statehood, usually after ceasing to be a colony or part of another nation or state, and more rarely after the end of a military occupation...
from August 24 to August 26. Russia held a national day of mourning on Thursday August 24, 2006.
Passenger list discrepancy
Investigators combing the site found 171 bodies and one fragment but authorities were unable to explain the discrepancy with the flight list — which registered 160 passengers and 10 crew — saying expert analysis would be required.External links
- "Ту-154 RA-85185 22.08.2006." (Investigation, Archive). Interstate Aviation Committee. (PDF, Archive)
- ОФИЦИАЛЬНОЕ ЗАЯВЛЕНИЕ ФГУАП «ПУЛКОВО» ИНФОРМАЦИЯ О РЕЙСЕ АНАПА - САНКТ-ПЕТЕРБУРГ - Pulkovo Aviation
- 170 die as Russian plane is struck by lightning