An-12 of Atran Airline crashed yesterday morning soon after the takeoff from Moscow Domodedovo Airport.
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Loaded Aircraft Crashed Near Cemetery
An-12 of Atran Airline crashed yesterday morning soon after the takeoff from Moscow Domodedovo Airport. The plane was carrying spares for the aircraft construction plant in Komsomolsk-on-Amur. The reason of right wing drop could be the failure of one or even two engines, the experts speculate.
The tragic flight of An-12 (No. 93912) lasted no longer than six minutes. The plane took off at 4:16 a.m. but went off the radars at 4:22 a.m. The air controller even didn’t attempt to call pilots. A powerful explosion broke out close to the airport once An-12 disappeared. Loaded all over by cargo and fuel, the plane crashed to the pine forest right behind the fence of Domodedovo cemetery. The aviation kerosene that poured out of it burst into flame, leaving no surviving chance to seven crew members.
The fire was catastrophic, and rescuers managed to evacuate remains of seven bodies in three hours after the crash. Blackboxes were found only in the afternoon, but analysts doubt they will be able to decipher them. Moscow prosecutors initiated a criminal case on count of violation of flight regulations causing deaths of two or more persons but investigators will determine the guilty only after technical experts establish the reasons of crash. The latter, however, are in no hurry to come up with official conclusion.
According to the experts, the most probable reason was simultaneous failure of two of four engines of the plane. It is difficult to maintain at flight a fully loaded cargo plane even if one of its four engines stopped at the takeoff, one of the experts explained, adding that the failure of two engines at one side is a catastrophe. That time, the engines could have been halted by seagulls or crows that were stuck in them, the analysts speculate.
www.kommersant.com
All the Article in Russian as of July 30, 2007
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