Boeing 737 500 of Tatarstan Airlines crashed. The pilot was not supposed to fly

Investigators have completed their investigation into the crash of a Boeing 737-500 at Kazan airport in November 2013. Then all 50 people on board were killed. The Investigative Committee of Russia (TFR) came to the conclusion that the pilots Rustem Salikhov and Viktor Gutsul were to blame for the tragedy, but their prosecution was stopped due to their death. Charges were brought against the management of the Tatarstan airline and the former head of the Tatar department of the Federal Air Transport Agency - they allowed an unprepared crew to control the aircraft. They face up to seven years in prison.

The Main Investigation Department of the ICR has completed the investigation of the criminal case of the crash in Kazan Boeing 737-500. The investigation found that "erroneous actions" of the pilots led to the crash.

Recall that the crash occurred at Kazan International Airport on the evening of November 17, 2013. A passenger Boeing 737-500 (registration number VQ-BBN) of Tatarstan Airlines was flying on flight 363 from Domodedovo. When landing, the crew had to go on the second circle. During landing, the plane crashed unexpectedly. All 50 people on board - 6 crew members and 44 passengers - were killed. Among the latter were the son of the president of Tatarstan, Irek Minnikhanov, and the former head of the Federal Security Service for Tatarstan, Alexander Antonov. In addition to the Russians, the victims were citizens of Ukraine and Great Britain.

After the disaster, the Federal Air Transport Agency canceled the air operator's certificate from JSC "Tatarstan". Subsequently, the republican carrier was declared bankrupt. The audit of the department showed that the aircraft commander Rustem Salikhov and co-pilot Viktor Gutsul could receive fictitious certificates of completion of aviation courses. Specialists of the International Aviation Committee called the cause of the tragedy the unpreparedness of the crew, which made a number of mistakes during the go-around approach, as a result of which the aircraft went into a dive and fell to the ground.

The TFR investigation confirmed that the Boeing commander "did not have sufficient piloting skills and was allowed to fly passenger traffic based on falsified documents. According to the investigation, in 2009, Valery Portnov, who held the position of Deputy General Director of JSC "Tatarstan", sent documents with unreliable information about Rustem Salikhov to the Tatar Interregional Territorial Administration of Air Transport of the Federal Air Transport Agency. The head of this department (was abolished in 2014) Shavkat Umarov “negligently failed to organize in September 2009 the verification of the authenticity and reliability of the commercial pilot certificate presented by the airline.” “As a result, Salikhov, not having the basic knowledge, skills and experience of a pilot, began to carry out passenger air transportation as an aircraft pilot,” the investigation believes.

In addition, the ICR found that Valery Portnov and the chief pilot of the airline, Viktor Fomin, "did not provide proper training for Mr. Salikhov, but instead sent an untrained pilot to receive the status of aircraft commander." As a result, in 2012, Rustem Salikhov became the commander of the aircraft. On November 17, 2013, it was Mr. Salikhov who "brought the aircraft into a difficult spatial position." At the same time, the co-pilot Viktor Gutsul "did not take control." “As a result, Salikhov during the offensive emergency situation, violating the piloting rules, by his actions allowed the aircraft to crash, ”the ICR said in a statement.

The criminal prosecution of Rustem Salikhov and Viktor Gutsul was terminated due to their death. Valery Portnov and Viktor Fomin were charged under Part 3 of Art. 263 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (violation of the rules of traffic safety and operation of air transport, which negligently caused the death of two or more persons), Shavkat Umarov - under part 3 of Art. 93 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (negligence, negligently resulting in the death of two or more persons). The maximum sentence they face is seven years in prison. The criminal case was sent to the Prosecutor General's Office for approval of the indictment.

In 2017, the first decisions were made on claims for compensation for non-pecuniary damage filed by the relatives of those who died in the crash. In all cases, the plaintiffs dropped their claims against the American corporation The Boeing Company and a number of other foreign companies. They left as defendants the Tatarstan airline and Ak Bars Insurance LLC, with which they entered into an amicable agreement.

The Investigative Committee of Russia announced the completion of a criminal investigation into the crash of a Boeing 737-500 aircraft at Kazan International Airport in November 2013.

Airport crash

On November 17, 2013, a Boeing 737-500 (53A) of Tatarstan Airlines, operating flight U9-363 on the Moscow-Kazan route, crashed while landing at Kazan airport.

As a result of the crash, everyone on board the liner, 44 passengers and 6 crew members, died. Among the victims of the disaster were the son of the head of the Republic of Tatarstan Rustama Minnikhanova Irek Minnikhanov, Head of the FSB Department for the Republic of Tatarstan Alexander Antonov, renowned orientalist Diana Gadzhieva, Elina Skvortsova(wife of a sportscaster Romana Skvortsova), two-time champion of the Republic of Tatarstan in chess Gulnara Rashitova.

On the same day, the investigating authorities of the Volga Investigation Department on Transport of the Investigative Committee Russian Federation a criminal case was initiated on the grounds of a crime under Part 3 of Art. 263 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (violation of the rules of traffic safety and operation of air transport, negligently resulting in the death of two or more persons).

Almost immediately, among the main versions of the disaster, the assumption of erroneous actions of the crew in difficult weather conditions began to appear. Negotiations between the pilots and the controller indicated that the crew's first landing attempt had failed. Assessing the position of the aircraft relative to the runway as "non-landing", the pilots began go-around. 25 seconds after that, the Boeing began to fall.

In December 2013, the official representative of the RF IC Vladimir Markin said: "The commander of the aircraft Rustem Salikho c had the specialty of an aircraft navigator, and then he allegedly received a license as a commercial pilot in one of the aviation training centers licensed by the Federal Air Transport Agency. The investigation has doubts about the legality of the activities of these centers, which have now been liquidated.”

IAC conclusions: the Boeing commander had no initial flight training

On December 23, 2015, the Interstate Aviation Committee published the final report on the results of its investigation into the Kazan crash.

“The cause of the crash of the Boeing 737-500 VQ-BBN aircraft was systemic shortcomings in identifying hazards and controlling the level of risk, as well as the inoperability of the flight safety management system in the airline and the lack of control over the level of training of crew members by aviation authorities at all levels (Tatar MTU VT , Rosaviatsia), which led to the admission to flights of an unprepared crew, the document said. - During the go-around, the crew did not recognize the fact that the autopilot was turned off and allowed the aircraft to get into a difficult spatial position for nose-up (“NOSE UP UPSET”). The PIC’s (pilot pilot’s) lack of skills to bring the aircraft out of a difficult spatial position (“UPSET RECOVERY”) led to the creation of a significant negative G, loss of spatial orientation and transfer of the aircraft into a steep dive (dive pitch angle up to 75 °) up to a collision with earth".

According to MAC, aviation accident was the result of a combination of a number of factors, including:

- the absence of the PIC (aircraft commander - approx. AiF.ru) initial flight training;

- admission to retraining on Boeing 737 flight crew members who do not fully meet the qualification requirements for retraining, including English language;

- methodological imperfection of the retraining process, formal control over the results and quality of retraining;

- the low level of organization of flight work in the airline, which led to the failure to eliminate the shortcomings identified for a long time in working with navigation equipment, piloting techniques and interaction of crew members, including during go-around;

- systematic violation of the regime of work and rest of crew members and large vacation debts, which could lead to the accumulation of fatigue and adversely affect the efficiency of crew members;

- increased psycho-emotional stress of the crew members before go-around due to a long-term inability to determine the location of the aircraft with the accuracy necessary for landing.

based on falsified documents

It took the investigating authorities another four years to come to final conclusions in terms of the law.

“During the investigation, it was established that the erroneous actions of the aircraft commander Rustem Salikhov and the co-pilot led to the crash. Victor Hutsul. According to the investigation, Salikhov did not have sufficient piloting skills and was allowed to carry out passenger transportation on the basis of falsified documents. - So, Valery Portnov who served as Deputy CEO In 2009, Tatarstan Airlines OJSC sent documents regarding Salikhov containing false information to the Tatarstan Interregional Directorate of the Federal Air Transport Agency. In its turn Shavkat Umarov, being the head of the Tatar Interregional Territorial Administration of Air Transport of the Federal Air Transport Agency, negligently failed to organize in September 2009 the verification of the authenticity and reliability of the certificate of commercial aviation pilot Salikhov presented by the airline, which would have revealed the fact that this certificate was not issued to him. As a result, Salikhov, not having the basic knowledge, skills and experience of a pilot, began to carry out passenger air transportation as an aircraft pilot.”

The investigation also believes that Valery Portnov and the chief pilot of the airline Victor Fomin did not provide Salikhov with proper training, but instead sent an untrained pilot to obtain the status of an aircraft commander. Since March 2012, Salikhov has been carrying out passenger air transportation as an aircraft commander.

With regard to the dead pilots, the case was dismissed. Their bosses are indicted

“On November 17, 2013, Salikhov, performing a flight on the Moscow-Kazan route, during landing, brought the aircraft into a difficult spatial position, while Hutsul did not take control. As a result, when an emergency situation occurred, Salikhov, violating the rules of piloting, by his actions allowed the aircraft to crash, the report says. — Long and numerous expert studies were required to obtain and consolidate the evidence base. During the preliminary investigation, large-scale and complex forensic, molecular genetic, chemical and forensic, as well as other forensic examinations were carried out, more than 200 witnesses and victims, specialists were interrogated, a significant amount of other investigative actions were carried out, which together confirmed the version of the investigation ".

The criminal prosecution against the aircraft commander Rustem Salikhov and co-pilot Viktor Gutsul was terminated due to their death.

Portnov and Fomin were charged with committing a crime under Part 3 of Art. 263 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (violation of the rules of traffic safety and operation of air transport, which negligently caused the death of two or more persons), Shavkt Umarov - under part 3 of Art. 293 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (negligence, negligently resulting in the death of two or more persons).

The criminal case was sent to the prosecutor for approval of the indictment.

There was a tragedy at the Kazan airport last night. "Boeing-737" airlines "Tatarstan", operating flight U363 on the route Moscow - Kazan, took off from Domodedovo exactly on schedule at 18.25. Landing at the international airport of the capital of Tatarstan was supposed to be done at 19.40. But at 19.25, the plane, while trying to go around, lost altitude, collided nose with the runway and exploded. There were 44 passengers and six crew members on board the Boeing. They all died. The investigation is considering several versions of the crash, including pilot error, weather and technical failure.

Among the dead were the son of the president of Tatarstan, Irek Minnikhanov, the head of the republican department of the FSB, Alexander Antonov, and the wife of sports commentator Roman Skvortsov, Ellina. The death of the son of Rustam Minnikhanov and the head of the Tatarstan FSB was confirmed to the correspondent of "RG" by Deputy Prime Minister of the Republic of Tatarstan Yuri Kamaltynov.

The plane crash occurred at 19.25. A Boeing flying from Moscow's Domodedovo Airport crashed on landing. According to preliminary data, the aircraft touched the runway and exploded.

Irina Rossius, press secretary of the Russian Minister of Emergency Situations, told RG that the plane crashed as a result of an explosion. What caused the explosion, a special expert commission will find out. One of the versions is the impact of the aircraft on the ground and the detonation of the fuel.

The liner tried to land not three times, as previously reported, but two. The first time it was not possible to sit down, we went to the second round. It was on the second attempt that disaster struck. Most likely, the pilots entered the runway at too sharp an angle. The plane, probably, poked its nose into the "take-off" and exploded - the pilots, most likely, did not calculate the glide path.

In the Russian Emergencies Ministry, the RG correspondent was told that three teams of disaster medicine, 10 ambulance teams and 5 teams of the Ministry of Emergency Situations were working at the crash site. In total - more than 300 employees and 100 pieces of equipment. A group of psychologists from the Ministry of Health of Tatarstan arrived at the scene of the emergency to help the relatives of the victims, who had already begun to arrive at the airport. The fire at the crash site has been extinguished.

Vladimir Markin, spokesman for the Russian Investigative Committee, said the investigation was looking into various leads, including pilot error, technical malfunction and adverse weather conditions.

Condolence

Russian President Vladimir Putin instructed the government to urgently form a commission to investigate the causes of the plane crash in Kazan.

"After receiving the relevant report on the plane crash, the head of state instructed the Russian government to urgently form a government commission to investigate the causes and circumstances of the plane crash," Presidential Press Secretary Dmitry Peskov said. According to him, "the president gave instructions to the relevant ministries and departments to take immediate measures to carry out the search and rescue operation."

"Putin deeply sympathizes with the families and friends of those who died in this terrible catastrophe," Peskov said.

Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev conveyed deep condolences to the families of the victims of this tragedy. The Prime Minister instructed Transport Minister Maxim Sokolov to create and head a commission to investigate the causes of the plane crash in Kazan, Natalya Timakova, press secretary of the head of government, said. "In the near future, the minister will fly to the site of the tragedy," she said.

Investigators have already begun to inspect the scene. According to him, during the investigation all possible versions will be checked. It is clear that in addition to inspecting the scene, documentation, samples of fuel and fuels and lubricants, which the aircraft was filled with, will be seized. They will check the maintenance of the liner, conduct a comprehensive technical examination. By the way, the situational center of Roshydromet reported that the weather conditions in Kazan on Sunday evening were favorable and normal for Kazan at this time of the year. Visibility - five thousand meters, the runway is dry, at times it was a little rain, the temperature is plus 3 degrees. Wind - 8 m/s, pressure 734 mm Hg. Art., humidity - 100 percent.

It is already known that the chairman of the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation, Alexander Bastrykin, took the investigation under his personal control. On his behalf, a group of investigators and forensic experts from the central office of the Investigative Committee, with experience in investigating air crashes, was formed. Bastrykin personally arrives in Kazan on Monday.

Monday has been declared a day of mourning in Tatarstan.

Debriefing

The Boeing had no problems when taking off from the capital's Domodedovo airport. Everything went as normal, RG noted at the Moscow airport. The plane took off at 18:25. According to the schedule, which is published on the website of the Tatarstan airline (it owned the plane), the board was supposed to arrive at 19:40, but it arrived 15 minutes earlier. In total, there are two Boeings in the airline's fleet.

One of them is a crashed Boeing 737-500 BBN. The total number of seats on the plane is 117, but there were 44 passengers on board.

"Boeings" of this type are quite popular in the airline fleet, such a plane takes off every five minutes. These machines have been operating in our airlines for a long time, there are at least 50 such aircraft.

Liners of this brand are produced in three series: Original, Classic and Next Generation. The first includes Boeing 737-100 and -200 aircraft. They have been produced since the 80s. But they have been out of production for a long time. Numerous complaints about the inconvenience forced the developers to improve the machines. The Classic series was launched by the Boeing 737-300, which is still successfully used on Russian airlines. Charter companies were interested in the capacity of aircraft, so two more versions of the Boeing 737-400 and -500 were developed, here the number of seats and flight range were increased. For carrier companies, cars of this series turned out to be the golden mean. Excellent technical characteristics and positive reviews have led to the fact that most of the machines in this class are still in use. Russian airlines. Boeing 737-500 has very good technical specifications, it develops a speed of 910 kilometers per hour, experts say.

It is known that the plane touched the runway during the approach to the second round and a fire broke out, the Federal Air Transport Agency reported. But if we talk about the reason that forced the pilots to go to the second round, then so far no one undertakes to name it. In a number of cases, the approach to the second circle occurs either due to weather conditions or due to a technical malfunction. But the airport was modernized this summer and allows you to receive ships in difficult weather conditions. Most likely, the weather conditions on the ground could not have caused a hard landing. The fire started after the plane hit the runway. But, apparently, the pilots did not expect such a development of events, experts suggest. This liner does not have an emergency fuel dump system. If the crew had any suspicions, they would try to run out the fuel.

The reasons bad landing will be officially known after the black boxes are deciphered. But so far, at the time of signing the issue, they have not been found. In addition to recorders, experts of the Interstate Aviation Committee usually take into account the location of the wreckage at the crash site when determining the causes.

On the this moment it is known that the aircraft was partially destroyed, a lot of small fragments are scattered nearby, but the fuselage is mostly intact. Last night, he was not evacuated from the runway so that experts could recreate the whole picture of the crash. Therefore, the airport was closed.

How damaged the runway itself will be judged after the evacuation of debris from the airport, the Federal Air Transport Agency noted. Information about the explosion on board has not yet been confirmed.

The crashed aircraft manufactured in 1990, it met the requirements of aviation safety, had a special certificate. Although, according to some reports, the crashed Boeing had already had experience emergency landing. However, the Federal Air Transport Agency has not yet confirmed this information either.

The Volga Territorial Administration of Gosavianadzor created a commission yesterday evening, which began an unscheduled inspection of the activities of the Tatarstan airline for compliance with legislation regarding flight safety.

Below is some background information.

On November 17, 2013, at 19:23 Moscow time, a Boeing-737-500 of Tatarstan Airlines crashed at the Kazan airport during landing. All 50 people (six crew members and 44 passengers) on board the aircraft were killed. Among the dead were the son of the president of Tatarstan, Irek Minnikhanov, and the head of the FSB department for Tatarstan, Alexander Antonov.

The crashed airliner flew along the Moscow-Kazan route. This flight was supposed to be operated by a smaller Bombardier aircraft, but due to the passenger load it was replaced by a Boeing-737.

According to the data on the crashed aircraft, it was operated by seven airlines, including Uganda Airlines (since the summer of 1995). Boeing made its first flight on June 18, 1990. The plane has been leased from Tatarstan Airlines since December 18, 2008.

Boeing-737-500 flew to Kazan from the Moscow airport "Domodedovo". When approaching international airport Kazan, the crew of the liner reported to the ground services that they were not ready for landing and asked for permission to go around. When entering the second circle, the plane lost altitude, 150 meters before the start of the runway fell to the ground and exploded. The wreckage of the aircraft after the explosion was scattered within a radius of about 500 meters. The area of their spread was 23 thousand square meters.

Emergency services were immediately sent to the scene, and rescue operations began. Significant forces of the Russian Emergencies Ministry were involved in the aftermath of the disaster, including the Centrospas detachment, specialists from the Leader Center and the 179th Rescue Center, as well as branches of the Volga Regional Search and Rescue Squad of the Russian Emergencies Ministry. The total strength of the grouping of forces exceeded 1.6 thousand people and 260 pieces of equipment.

On the first anniversary of the tragedy, a memorial stele was unveiled at the Kazan airport, on which the names of all 50 dead passengers aircraft and crew members.

On the fact of the plane crash, the investigating authorities of the Volga Investigation Department for Transport of the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation initiated a criminal case on the grounds of a crime under Part 3 of Art. 263 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (violation of the rules of traffic safety and operation of air transport, resulting in the death of two or more persons through negligence).

Later, the criminal case was transferred to the main investigative department of the central office of the Investigative Committee.

According to the results of the examination of signs of narcotic or alcohol intoxication in the blood of the pilots was not found.

After deciphering the “black box”, the Interstate Aviation Committee (IAC) stated that when approaching the runway, the pilots made a number of mistakes that they tried to correct by taking the board to the second circle. At the same time, one of the two autopilots of the Boeing-737 aircraft was turned off, and the crew of the liner carried out a manual landing. When entering the second circle, the crew of the aircraft, gaining altitude, lifted the nose of the liner too much. As a result, the aircraft lost speed. Having reached a height of 700 meters, the aircraft began to dive intensively and collided with the ground at high speed (more than 450 kilometers per hour) and almost vertically (at an angle of 75 degrees to the surface of the earth). About 43 seconds elapsed from the start of the liner's go-around to the end of the recording on the recorder.

The power plants worked until the aircraft collided with the ground.

Tatarstan Airlines reported that the commander of the crashed airliner had never performed a go-around maneuver in a real flight before the tragedy.

After the disaster in Kazan, the investigation began to study the training of pilots. Subsequently, it turned out that the commander of the crashed plane received a diploma in a dubious training center. According to Prosecutor General of the Russian Federation Yuri Chaika, the commander of the crashed plane had a false pilot's certificate. The second pilot's license was also obtained illegally in the absence of the necessary flying practice.

After the crash, the Federal Air Transport Agency (Rosaviatsia) conducted unscheduled inspections of a number of flight training centers and suspended pilots from a number of airlines, including the largest ones, from flying until the end of the investigation.

The Federal Air Transport Agency also checked the activities of the Tatarstan airline, as a result of which it revealed a number of violations and, from December 31, 2013, canceled its air operator certificate. The aircraft fleet was transferred to another Tatarstan carrier - Ak Bars Aero.

Aksan Giniyatullin, Director General of JSC Tatarstan Airlines, was dismissed from his post by the decision of the Board of Directors of the company.

In May 2014, Tatarstan Airlines filed a claim with the court to declare its own bankruptcy; in June, the court declared the airline bankrupt.

Shavkat Umarov, the head of the Tatar Interregional Territorial Air Transport Administration of the Federal Air Transport Agency, resigned after the crash, which was granted. The territorial administration itself lost its independence and became a structural subdivision of the Volga Interregional Territorial Administration of the Federal Air Transport Agency.

In September 2014, the IAC reported that the engineering and technical subcommittee concluded that on the records of the means of objective control of the Boeing-737 that crashed in Kazan, as well as on the preserved parts, components and assemblies of the airframe, engines and systems, including the elevator control system, signs there are no failures of aviation equipment in an emergency flight.

At the end of December 2015, the IAC published the final results of the investigation into the crash. The cause of the aircraft crash was systemic shortcomings in identifying hazards and controlling the level of risk, as well as the inoperability of the airline's flight safety management system and the lack of control over the level of training of crew members by aviation authorities at all levels (Tatar MTU VT, Rosaviatsia), which led to admission for untrained crew flights.