Aeroflot Flight 5003 (1977)

Aeroflot

Industry	Airline
Founded	1923
Headquarters	Moscow , Soviet Union

This article is about the 1977 crash involving an Il-18 aircraft. For the 1967 Antonov An-12 incident, see Aeroflot Flight 5003 (1967).

Aeroflot Flight 5003 was operating a scheduled service from Tashkent to Mineralnye Vody with a scheduled stop at Nukus. On 15 February 1977, the Ilyushin Il-18V assigned to this flight crashed near Mineralnye Vody district during climbout following a missed landing attempt. Out of the 98 individuals aboard, 77 lost their lives in the accident.

Aircraft details

The aircraft involved was an Ilyushin Il-18V bearing registration CCCP-75520, operated by Aeroflot. Originally delivered in 1963, it was transferred to the Ministry of Civil Aviation and subsequently assigned to the Tashkent division under Uzbek Civil Aviation Administration. Although the cabin configuration allowed for 89 seats, the flight carried 92 passengers on this occasion. At the time of the incident, the airframe had accumulated 29,443 flight hours and completed 10,817 pressurization cycles.

Passengers and crew

Flight 5003 carried a total of 92 passengers, including four children. The cockpit crew comprised six members, led by captain N. A. Konovalenko (Н. А. Коноваленко). Supporting him were first officer B.V. Polyakov (Б.В. Поляков), flight engineer N.I. Sorokin (Н. И. Сорокин), and navigator A.P. Vishnevetsky (А. П. Вишневецкий). Additionally, two flight attendants were present on board.

Accident summary

The accident occurred during the segment between Nukus and Mineralnye Vody airports. Weather conditions at Mineralnye Vody at that time included low clouds with fog extending below 100 meters above ground level, icy surfaces on the ground, and visibility ranging from approximately 1020 to 1180 meters. The aircraft approached on a heading of 117°. While configuring for landing, the crew extended the flaps and reduced airspeed from 290 km/h to 260 km/h; however, their focus was divided between instrument monitoring and locating visual references, which led to an unnoticed lateral deviation from the intended flight path. At a distance of about 1.5 kilometers from the runway, the pilots detected this course error and adjusted heading to 127°. Recognizing that a safe landing was no longer feasible, the captain initiated a go-around maneuver for another approach.

During this initial missed approach phase, instead of climbing straight ahead to reach an altitude of 300 meters, the aircraft executed a right turn at approximately 80–90 meters altitude while losing height and entering a bank angle between four and five degrees. The aircraft's speed increased to roughly 270 km/h before the crew rapidly altered flap settings simultaneously at an altitude near 120–130 meters. The captain then raised the nose to achieve an eleven-degree pitch-up attitude, which imposed a load factor of about 1.64 gs on the airframe. This excessive load damaged critical control surfaces including ailerons and rudder.

Despite corrective inputs from the pilots, the aircraft continued rolling rightward rapidly; within eight seconds its heading shifted from roughly 165° to about 205°. The plane maintained a right bank ranging from ten to thirty degrees as it flew on a heading near 102° aimed toward the airport—an alignment that crews tried unsuccessfully to correct while attempting to gain altitude. At precisely 23:17:44 local time, traveling at approximately 285 km/h with a left bank between five and eight degrees and heading around 216°, the aircraft impacted terrain near a railway line, resulting in extensive damage.

Causes

The inquiry determined that pilot error was the primary factor in the accident. The flight crew failed to execute the approach correctly, and during the aborted landing, the aircraft was maneuvered at an excessively steep angle of attack. This led to a stall and inflicted damage on the flight control surfaces.

See also

• Manx2 Flight 7100 – Another accident occurring in fog following a missed approach
• Flydubai Flight 981 – Incident involving a crash under low visibility conditions