On the 14th of September, 2008, as many of you should know, Aeroflot Flight 821 was a Boeing 737-500 en-route from Moscow to the city of Perm near the Ural Mountains of Russia. It crashed on the outskirts of the city of Perm near the rail line which shut down the Trans-Siberian Railway which runs from Moscow down to the south eastern city of Vladivostok and continues onward to China, North Korea and Mongolia. The cause of the crash is still unknown although it is a suspected engine-failure of some sort and terrorism is said to be ruled out. Many witnesses report that the plane came down on-fire and hit the ground at a 30-40 degree angle. All on 88 on board were found dead.
According to the Air Traffic Controller (ATC), who was working at the tower at the time, the final approach the aircraft was taking was too far to the right, which the pilots corrected after being informed of this. He also states that instead of descending to land, the aircraft pitched upwards and ascended. The ATC informed the pilots of this and asked if they had ascended to 3000 feet off the ground, in case the radar was reading the altitude incorrectly. The pilots stated that they were descending, and yet, climbed further to 4000 feet. The aircraft at which point was too high to initiate an Instrument Landing Approach and so ATC instructed them to initiate a go-around and turn to the right. The pilots acknowledged this instruction but strangely turned to the left and asked if they could continue their approach. The controller asked the pilots if things were okay. The pilots responded and stated that everything was alright. ATC instructed the crew to change radio frequencies and maintain a holding pattern. At this point, the aircraft seemed to make a rather quick descent. ATC asked if they could maintain 2000 feet, at which point the plane crashed and an explosion was seen from the tower.
One of the two flight data recorders have already been sent to investigators for analysis. Aeroflot has had approximately 127 accidents involving Aeroflot aircraft throughout it’s history as an airline but has not had a major accident since 1994 when Aeroflot Flight 593, an Airbus A310 crashed in Siberia after after the auto-pilot was unintentionally partly turned off while the captain’s son was allowed to sit in the pilot seat. The cause of this crash should be interesting as the events described by the Air Traffic Controller about the plane’s actions seem rather abnormal, and whether it was pilot error or a mechanical failure etc. was the cause of the crash.
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