| Aeroflot Flight 2230 | |
| Occurrence Type: | Accident |
| Summary: | Engine failure and fire followed by an electrical failure of cockpit instruments |
| Site: | 2.9 km (1.8 mi) east of Koltsovo Airport |
| Aircraft Type: | Ilyushin Il-18V |
| Tail Number: | CCCP-75538 |
| Destination: | Tashkent Yuzhny Airport, Tashkent |
| Passengers: | 99 |
| Crew: | 8 |
| Fatalities: | 107 |
| Survivors: | 0 |
Aeroflot Flight 2230 was a Soviet domestic passenger flight from Yekaterinburg (then Sverdlovsk) to Tashkent. On 16 November 1967, the Ilyushin Il-18 aircraft serving the flight crashed after takeoff, killing all 107 people aboard (including twelve children).[1] At the time, it was the deadliest aviation accident in the Russian SFSR and the worst accident involving the Il-18.[2]
The flight was serviced by an Ilyushin Il-18V turboprop airliner, manufactured on 25 March 1964 with a serial number 184007002.[3] The aircraft made its maiden flight and commenced operations in the same year. On the day of the accident it had 5,326 flight hours, or 2,111 flight cycles.[3]
The crew consisted of the pilot in command Yuri Abaturov, co-pilot Nikolai Mikhaylov, navigating officer Anatoly Zagorsky, flight engineer Viktor Ospishchev and radio officer Yuri Yefremov.[1]
The aircraft was cleared for takeoff from Koltsovo Airport at 21:02 local time.[1] When an engine caught fire and its propeller would not feather, the amount of drag it caused resulted in a sharp right turn while climbing at a speed of, at an altitude of and began to rapidly descend,[1] striking the ground, with a horizontal velocity of and a vertical speed of, in a ploughed field, with a 37-degree right bank.[1] [2] The aircraft completely disintegrated, complicating the subsequent accident investigation.[1] There were also fire outbreaks at the crash site.
The investigation said that the crash resulted from a wrong indication of the main artificial horizons and the compass system due to an electrical failure and that the flight crew was unable to determine the correct altitude.[4]