Utair Flight 579

On September 1, 2018, Utair Flight 579, a Boeing 737-800 on a scheduled domestic flight from Moscow to Sochi, Russia, with 164 passengers and 6 crew, overran the runway and caught fire while landing at Sochi, injuring 18 occupants. One airport employee died of a heart attack.[1][2]

Utair Flight 579
VQ-BJI, the Boeing 737 involved in the accident
Accident
Date1 September 2018 (2018-09-01)
SummaryRunway overrun due to pilot error and windshear
SiteSochi International Airport, Sochi, Russia
43.451935°N 39.960957°E / 43.451935; 39.960957
Total fatalities1
Aircraft
Aircraft typeBoeing 737-8AS
OperatorUtair
IATA flight No.UT579
ICAO flight No.UTA579
Call signUtair 579
RegistrationVQ-BJI
Flight originVnukovo International Airport, Moscow, Russia
DestinationSochi International Airport, Sochi, Russia
Occupants172
Passengers166
Crew6
Fatalities0
Injuries18
Survivors172
Ground casualties
Ground fatalities1 (indirect)

Aircraft and crew

The aircraft involved in the accident was a Boeing 737-8AS[lower-alpha 1] with serial number 29937 and Bermudan registration VQ-BJI.[3] It was delivered in 2002 to Ryanair and operate until it was retired in 2009. It was subsequently leased by Atlant-Soyuz Airlines in 2010. The airline rebranded as Moscow Airlines the same year and ceased operations shortly afterwards in January 2011. Finally, Utair leased the aircraft since mid-2011 until it crashed.[4]

The unnamed 51-year-old captain had 13,995 flight hours, including 6,391 hours on the Boeing 737. The unnamed 53-year-old first officer had 12,277 flight hours, with 5,147 of them on the Boeing 737. Both pilots were type rated on both the Boeing 737 Classic and Next Generation variants and had completed crew resource management training. The first officer had also undergone windshear training in May 2018.[5]

Accident

The flight departed from Vnukovo Airport at 12:30 am local time with 166 passengers and six crew. The flight crew aborted the first two approaches to Sochi before committing to a third that resulted in the overrun. The aircraft touched down at 2:57 am and overran runway 06, came to rest on the bed of the Mzymta River and caught fire, prompting an evacuation.[6]

Eighteen occupants were injured; injuries included burns and carbon monoxide poisoning.[1] Transportation Minister Yevgeny Dietrich confirmed that an airport employee died of a heart attack during the emergency response.[7]

Thunderstorms were reported over Sochi at the time of the accident. The aircraft received damage to its belly, wings and engines.[3] The airport operator reported that the fire was extinguished within eight minutes.[7]

Investigation

An accident investigation was launched by the Interstate Aviation Committee (IAC) of Russia. Two days after the crash on September 3, the IAC reported that the flight recorders had been recovered from the aircraft, the data were retrieved successfully and would be analyzed. The committee completed examination of the accident site and was making preparations for moving the aircraft. The United States National Transportation Safety Board, representing the State of Design and State of Manufacture of the aircraft, and the United Kingdom's Air Accidents Investigation Branch, representing the State of Registry, were invited to participate in the investigation.[8]

The Investigative Committee of Russia also launched a probe into the crash, with a Southern Transport Department official stating that "a criminal investigation has been opened into the emergency landing ... on suspicion of inadequate services with a risk to clients' health."

The IAC released a preliminary report on November 6, 2018.[9]

On December 12, 2019 the IAC released their final report on the accident.[5] The cause of the accident was the flight crew ignoring repetitive windshear warnings when the aircraft experienced low-level horizontal windshear and the crew's decision to land on the runway when its conditions at the time of the accident prohibited doing so. Contributing factors included violation of standard operation procedures, improper use of the autopilot, poor crew resource management training, and late deployment of the spoilers.[2]

See also

Notes
  1. The aircraft was a Boeing 737-800 model; Boeing formerly assigned a unique code for each company that bought one of its aircraft, which was applied as an infix to the model number; hence "737-8AS", designating a 737-800 ordered by Ryanair.

References
  1. "Jet crashes on landing in Russian city". BBC News. September 1, 2018. Retrieved September 1, 2018.
  2. Hradecky, Simon. "Accident: UTAir B738 at Sochi on Sep 1st 2018, overran runway on landing". avherald.com. The Aviation Herald. Retrieved September 1, 2018.
  3. "Aircraft accident Boeing 737-8AS (WL) VQ-BJI Adler/Sochi Airport (AER)". Aviation Safety Network. Retrieved September 2, 2018.
  4. "VQ-BJI UTair Aviation Boeing 737-800". www.planespotters.net. Retrieved November 8, 2020.
  5. "Final Report Boeing 737-800 VQ-BJI accident" (PDF). Interstate Aviation Committee. December 12, 2019. Retrieved November 8, 2020.
  6. "Over a dozen injured after plane catches fire in Russia". New York Post. September 1, 2018. Retrieved September 1, 2018.
  7. "Airport worker dies after plane's crash landing in Russia". September 1, 2018. Retrieved September 1, 2018.
  8. "Boeing 737-800 VQ-BJI 01.09.2018". МЕЖГОСУДАРСТВЕННЫЙ АВИАЦИОННЫЙ КОМИТЕТ.
  9. "Промежуточный отчет самолет Boeing 737-800 VQ-BJI" [Interim Report Boeing 737-800 VQ-BJI] (PDF) (in Russian). Interstate Aviation Committee. November 6, 2018. Retrieved November 8, 2020.
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