1951 Aradan Aeroflot An-2 crash | |
Occurrence Type: | Accident |
Summary: | Unexplained disappearance |
Site: | Aradan Ridge, 25 km from Aradan (Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic, USSR) |
Aircraft Type: | Antonov An-2T |
Operator: | Aeroflot |
Tail Number: | СССР-А2597 |
Origin: | Kyzyl Airport, RSFSR |
Destination: | Abakan Airport, RSFSR |
Crew: | 4 |
Missing: | 4 |
Survivors: | 0 |
The 1951 Aradan Aeroflot An-2 crash was an aviation accident that occurred on 21 April 1951. An Antonov An-2 aircraft, operated by Aeroflot disappeared on a flight from Kyzyl to Abakan with four crew on board. The incident was the first fatal loss of the Antonov An-2[1] . The aircraft's wreckage was not located until 2009 and was positively identified in 2019.
The Antonov An-2 (registration number CCCP-A2597, serial number 10647307) had been manufactured on January 28, 1951. It was delivered to Aeroflot on March 7 of the same year.[2]
The An-2 took off from Kyzyl at 12:05 Moscow time on a cargo flight to Abakan with 485kg (1,069lb) of furs. The aircraft never arrived at Abakan; search and rescue operations were conducted but suspended a few days later as no trace of the aircraft nor the four crew were found.[3]
According to the findings of the investigation, the poor organization of the flight and inadequate management of the flight were highlighted as follows:[4]
1) The aircraft was dispatched on a flight from Krasnoyarsk to Kyzyl outside of the schedule. The airports of Abakan and Kyzyl were not notified in time about this flight, its reception, servicing, and the aircraft involved.
2) Violation by Commander Puzyryov of §§ 84 and 256 NPP-47, resulting in the aircraft, flying in snowfall, potentially icing up (including carburetor icing) and crashing into a mountain during a forced descent with limited visibility. It was also considered that a landslide of rock and snow might have occurred.
3) Poor meteorological support for the flight was identified due to the following reasons:
In August 2009, blogger Sergey Shishkin and his group filmed the wreckage of an An-2. The video shows landing gear struts, the engine, and parts of the fuselage. The video was uploaded to YouTube on 31 March 2016, titled “Aradan 2009. 10th day.”[5] Shishkin was not able to identify the aircraft as CCCP-A2597.
On 9 June 2019, a helicopter piloted by Alexey Kantsedalov rediscovered the wreckage at an altitude of 1,850 meters (200 meters from the landing site). Kantsedalov saw the remains of the aircraft and, recognizing the first digits of the registration number, confirmed that it was An-2 CCCP-A2597:[6]