2009 Makhachkala Il-76 collision

The remains of RA-76825, a few hours after the collision.
Accident
Date	15 January 2009 (2009-01-15)
Summary	Ground collision due to Pilot error on RA-76827
Site	Uytash Airport, Makhachkala, Republic of Dagestan, Russia 42°49′01″N 47°39′08″E / 42.81694°N 47.65222°E / 42.81694; 47.65222
Total fatalities	4
Total survivors	34 (all on board RA-76827 and 2 on board RA-76825)
First aircraft
Ilyushin Il-76 operated by the Russian Ministry, similar to the one involved.
Type	Ilyushin Il-76MD
Operator	Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs
Registration	RA-76825
Fatalities	4
Injuries	2
Survivors	2
Second aircraft
Another Il-76 by the same operator, in another livery, and similar to the one involved in the collision.
Type	Ilyushin Il-76MD
Operator	Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs
Registration	RA-76827
Fatalities	0
Survivors	31

The 2009 Makhachkala Il-76 collision occurred on 15 January 2009 near 18:00 UTC, when two Ilyushin Il-76 transport aircraft of the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs (MVD) collided at Uytash Airport serving the city of Makhachkala in Dagestan, Russia.^[1][2][3]

On the evening of January 15, 2009, four Il-76 military transport aircraft of the 675th Special Aviation Regiment of the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs took off from Chkalovsky air base with military personnel and equipment on board, bound for Makhachkala Airport. Their task was to unload the personnel and military equipment and return to their home Nizhny Novgorod Airport.

The first aircraft completed the task successfully. The second aircraft (tail number RA-76825) landed at the airport, unloaded and taxied to a runway access point, where it awaited the landing of the third aircraft (tail number RA-76827). The third aircraft, after landing in difficult weather conditions with the minimum established weather (fog, runway visibility 800 meters, vertical visibility 60 meters), touched down, moving however 15-20 meters to the left of the runway. Before that, the Il-76 still on the ground crossed the taxiway end line but did not report its position to Air traffic control (ATC). As a result, the landing aircraft hit the aircraft waiting for take-off with its wing in the cockpit.

As a result of the collision, the cockpit of the Il-76MD (RA-76825) on the ground was destroyed, of the seven crew members of the aircraft, four were killed (Commander/Lieutenant Colonel Maxim Dubankov, Flight Engineer Vladimir Knyazevič, Flight Radio Operator Alexander Alekhine, Flight Engineer Anatoly Tupitsyn) and three were injured and were later taken to a hospital in the city of Kaspiysk.^[4] None of the passengers on board the landing aircraft (6 crew members and 31 passengers) were injured. The pilot of the fourth Il-76, after assessing the situation, directed the aircraft to an alternative airport.^[5][6]

The cause of the collision was the crew of RA-76827's lack of experience with landings in poor and rapidly changing visibility conditions. When the runway lights were visible, the crew switched off the ILS receiver and made a visual approach to the airport. Upon entering a thick cloud of fog, the crew lost sight of the lights and steered the aircraft too far to the left of the runway. The crew forgot to switch on the aircraft's landing lights.

When the error was noticed at a height of 9 feet, the pilots attempted to steer sharply to the right to realign the aircraft on the runway. The aircraft landed 1 meter from the left edge of the runway, so far to the left that the aircraft's left wing was sticking out from the runway. In addition, the aircraft exceeded the maximum landing weight of 146 tons, making it almost impossible to maneuver on the runway.

During the investigations, it was noticed that the taxiing position of taxiway 2 was only 91 meters from the runway, although a minimum distance of 120 meters is required.^[7]

Makhachkala Airport was closed until the runway and damaged areas were cleaned. Material damage from the damage to two aircraft amounted to 158.7 million rubles.^[8]

After the collision, aircraft RA-76827 was repaired at the 123rd Aircraft Repair Plant (Staraya Russa) and returned to service on 15 December 2010.^[9]

In April 2011, the Makhachkala Garrison Military Court found the squadron commander, Lieutenant Colonel Igor Aleksandrov, who piloted the Il-76 RA-76827, guilty of committing a crime under Article 351 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (violation of flight rules or preparation for them), and sentenced him to six years of imprisonment, deciding to consider the sentence suspended with a probationary period of three years.

The court partially satisfied the claims of two victims against the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs for compensation for moral damage in connection with the death of their breadwinner, collecting 500 thousand rubles in their favor. In addition, the court recognized the right of military unit 3797 to sue Aleksandrov for compensation for material damage and referred the question of the amount of compensation for the claim to consideration in civil proceedings.^[10]

• Accident description for RA-76825 at the Aviation Safety Network
• Accident description for RA-76827 at the Aviation Safety Network