Rus Flight 9633

Rus Flight 9633 was a cargo flight operated on an IL-76TD aircraft of «Rus» airlines from Chkalovsky Airport (Moscow) to Taiyuan Wusu Airport (Taiyuan) with intermediate landings at Alykel Airport (Norilsk) and Bratsk Airport (Bratsk). On July 14, 2001, the plane carrying out this flight crashed a few seconds after takeoff from Chkalovsky Airport. All 10 people on board were killed.

Rus Flight 9633

IL-76TD of «Rus» airlines, identical to the crashed one
Occurrence
Date	14 July 2001
Summary	Crash after takeoff
Site	Russia, Moscow, Moscow Oblast, 1.5 km from Chkalovsky Airport
Aircraft
Aircraft type	Ilyushin Il-76TD
Operator	Rus
ICAO flight No.	RUR9633
Registration	RA-76588
Flight origin	Chkalovsky Airport, Moscow (Russia)
1st stopover	Alykel Airport, Norilsk (Russia)
Last stopover	Bratsk Airport, Bratsk (Russia)
Destination	Taiyuan Wusu Airport, Taiyuan (China)
Passengers	2
Crew	8
Fatalities	10
Survivors	0

Aircraft

Ilyushin Il-76TD (registration number RA-76588, factory 0043451530, serial 39-03) was released by the Tashkent Aviation Production Association named after V. P. Chkalov in April 1984. In the same month, it was transferred (under the onboard number CCCP-76588) to the USSR Air Force; since December 1991 — to the Russian Air Force, board RA-76588. In 1992, it was transferred to the Ukraine Air Force, from which it was leased to the Russian airlines Atruvera (from October 1994 to November 15, 1995) and Aviacon Zitotrans (from November 15, 1995 to November 4, 1999). On November 4, 1999, it was put into storage at the Tupolev. On July 17, 2000, it was purchased by «Rus» airlines. It is equipped with four D-30KP-2 turbojet engines manufactured by the Rybinsk Engine-Building Plant. On the day of the disaster, he made 1831 take-off-landing cycles and flew 3523 hours.

Crew

The crew of the RUR9633 flight was as follows:

• The commander of the aircraft is Vyacheslav S. Boyko. A very experienced pilot, flew 12,850 hours, over 5,000 of them on the IL-76.
• The first officer is Gennady A. Butenko. Flew 230 hours on the IL-76.
• Navigator is V. N. Tutaev.
• Flight engineer is V. P. Geraskin.
• The radio operator is A. B. Rubtsov.
• On-board operator is K. F. Pavlov.
• On-board operator is S. S. Zavyalov.
• The inspector is Vyacheslav V. Kuskov, Head of the Certification Department of operators of the OMTU of the Central Regions of Air Transport of the Ministry of Transport of Russia.

Chronology of events

Previous circumstances

Ilyushin Il-76TD registration RA-76588 performed cargo flight RUR9633 from Moscow to Taiyuan with intermediate landings in Norilsk and Bratsk. The weather at Chkalovsky airfield was as follows — fog with visibility of 500–900 meters, vertical visibility of 70–80 meters, temperature +8 °C.

The plane was prepared for departure and, according to the loading documents, there were 40.2 tons of cargo on board. The total take-off weight of the aircraft was 191.9 tons, but in fact the cargo was not weighed properly, and in fact the actual take-off weight of flight 9633 was approximately 204 tons, which was 14 tons higher than the maximum permissible weight. The crew knew about the overload, but decided to take off; in addition, the pilots did not calculate the alignment of the aircraft and also did not draw up a scheme for the necessary placement of cargo in the aircraft. Due to the incorrect alignment of the aircraft, problems subsequently arose with the stability and control of the aircraft.

Takeoff, disaster

The flaps were set at 30°, the slats at 14°, and the stabilizers were at -5.4°. The plane began to accelerate along the runway and at a speed of 290 km/h, after a run-up of 2700 meters, the landing gear was raised and flight 9633 broke away from the runway. But immediately after takeoff, the plane began to list to the left and, to compensate for this, the FAC rejected the steering wheel to the right, forming a right roll of 7 °. The overloaded aircraft barely coped with such a load. At an altitude of 23 meters, the pilots shifted the stabilizer from -5.4 ° to -3.9 ° to dive without using the elevator to compensate, although it is strictly forbidden to control the stabilizers on takeoff. After the stabilizer was shifted, the aircraft stopped gaining altitude and began to descend. The commander pulled the steering wheel, but disaster was already inevitable.

At 08:53 MSK flight RUR9633 crashed into trees at 930 meters from the end of the runway, continued to decline and at 1460 meters from the end of the runway collapsed into the forest and completely collapsed. All 10 people on board the plane (8 crew members and 2 passengers) were killed. A memorial was erected at the crash site.

Investigation

The investigation of the causes of the Ilyushin Il-76 crash was conducted by the Interstate Aviation Committee.

According to the conclusion of the commission of investigation, the accident occurred due to a collision with obstacles on the site of the initial climb due to the crew's failure to maintain a safe trajectory of the set as a result of an unfavorable combination of the following factors:

• Violations in the organization of technological operations during acceptance and registration of cargo at Chkalovsky airport, which does not exclude the possibility of loading excess cargo into the aircraft;
• Exceeding the limit of the maximum permissible take-off weight of the aircraft (according to research data, the excess was 13.6 - 14 tons);
• Manifestations of a constantly recurring, timely undetected error in piloting the aircraft of the B.C. FAC, which was smartly expressed in the use of a stabilizer to balance the aircraft at an altitude below the height of the beginning of the wing mechanization of the installed IL-76 radar, which led to the departure of the aircraft from a safe climb trajectory, and later to a collision with obstacles;
• Insufficient interaction between crew members during takeoff in conditions of limited visibility, manifested in the absence of the necessary control over the altitude of the flight by the first officer and navigator;
• Limited visibility (local fog), which did not allow the crew to visually detect obstacles in advance and avoid collisions with them;
• The presence of natural obstacles (forests) in the approach lane with a magnetic take-off course 121° of the Chkalovsky airfield, which does not meet the current requirements of the Standards of Serviceability of civil airfields (NGEA-92) for civil aircraft flights.

During the investigation, a large number of violations were revealed in the organization of flight operations and the maintenance of airworthiness of aircraft in CJSC Aviation Transport Company Rus, CJSC Aviation Transport Company Atruvera, as well as in the organization of flight support at Chkalovsky Airport. For the violations committed, the certificate of the operator of CJSC Rus Aviation Transport Company was canceled, the certificate of conformity of the Chkalovsky airport was suspended.