Ural Airlines Flight 178
Photograph of the incident
VQ-BOZ after emergency landing on the cornfield
Accident
Date15 August 2019 (2019-08-15)
SummaryCrash-landed following bird strike resulting in dual engine failure
SiteNear Zhukovsky International Airport, Moscow, Russia
55°30′43″N 38°15′07″E / 55.512°N 38.252°E / 55.512; 38.252
Aircraft
Aircraft typeAirbus A321-211
OperatorUral Airlines
IATA flight No.U6178
ICAO flight No.SVR178
Call signSVERDLOVSK AIR 178
RegistrationVQ-BOZ
Flight originZhukovsky International Airport, Moscow, Russia
DestinationSimferopol International Airport, Simferopol, Crimea
Occupants233
Passengers226
Crew7
Fatalities0
Injuries74
Survivors233 (all)

Ural Airlines Flight 178 was a scheduled passenger flight from Moscow–Zhukovsky to Simferopol, Crimea. On 15 August 2019, the Airbus A321 operating the flight carried 226 passengers and seven crew. The flight suffered a bird strike after taking off from Zhukovsky and crash landed in a cornfield, 5 kilometres (3.1 mi; 2.7 nmi) away from the airport. All on board survived; 74 people sustained injuries, but none were severe.

Accident

External videos
video icon Footage shortly after takeoff
video icon Footage during landing
video icon Aerial footage of landing area
video icon Footage of the landing site and plane shot by a passenger after landing

The aircraft suffered a bird strike shortly after takeoff from Zhukovsky International Airport, Moscow, Russia, bound for Simferopol International Airport, Simferopol, Crimea.[1] A passenger recorded the plane's descent into a cornfield after a flock of gulls struck both CFM56-5 engines.[2] The first bird strike caused a complete loss of power in the left engine. A second bird strike caused the right engine to produce insufficient thrust to maintain flight.[3]

The pilots opted to make an emergency landing in a cornfield beyond the end of the airport runway and decided to shut down both engines just before touchdown. The aircraft made a hard landing in the cornfield 2.8 nautical miles (5.2 km) from Zhukovsky International Airport.[3][4] The pilot chose not to lower the landing gear in order to skid more effectively over the corn.[5]

Everyone on board the flight survived.[2] There have been differing reports on the number of injuries sustained as the criteria for counting a person as "injured" are not overly strict. According to some reports, 55 people received medical attention at the scene. 29 people were taken to hospital, of whom 23 were injured. Six people were admitted as in-patients.[6][7][8] The number of injuries was finally fixed at 74, none of whom was severely injured.[9] All passengers were offered 100,000 ₽ (US$1,358) as accident compensation.[10]

Aircraft

The aircraft involved, taken 9 days prior to the incident.

The aircraft was an Airbus A321-211, registered in Bermuda as VQ-BOZ, msn 2117. It was built in 2003 for MyTravel Airways (as G-OMYA), who decided not to accept it; it was then transferred to Cyprus Turkish Airlines as TC-KTD. It then operated for AtlasGlobal as TC-ETR in 2010, and Solaris Airlines in 2011 as EI-ERU, before being delivered to Ural Airlines in 2011 as VQ-BOZ.[1][11][12]

The aircraft was damaged beyond repair in the accident[3] and the airline announced that it would be cut up in situ (on site) to be scrapped, in an operation that was scheduled to commence on 23 August 2019.[13] The accident represents the sixth hull loss of an Airbus A321.[1][14]

Crew

The pilot in command was 41-year-old Damir Yusupov who graduated from the Buguruslan Flight School of Civil Aviation, in Buguruslan, Russia, in 2013. He has also received a degree in Air Navigation from the Ulyanovsk Institute of Civil Aviation, in Ulyanovsk, Russia. At the time of the accident, he had over 3,000 hours of flight time.[15]

The co-pilot was 23-year-old Georgy Murzin who also graduated from the Buguruslan Flight School of Civil Aviation, in 2017.[16] At the time of the accident, he had over 600 hours of flight time.[15]

There were five flight attendants on board.[3]

Proliferation of birds near airport

The proliferation of birds near Moscow–Zhukovsky is attributed to illegal waste dumps.[17] The deployed bird control measures are overwhelmed and insufficient.[18] In 2012, the management of one of the waste sites had been sued in Zhukovsky district court, alleging that "the waste sorting facilities attract massive numbers of birds due to significant content of edible refuse, and with the site located at the distance of 2 km (1.2 mi; 1.1 nmi) from the airport runway this could lead to collisions between birds and aircraft, threatening human life and limb". The court did not find sufficient grounds to rule in favor of plaintiffs and their demands to enjoin the defendants from sorting or storing household waste at the specified site.[19]

As of 2019, this site is no longer sorting or storing household waste, instead compacting it and transferring it further for disposal; the operations, however, are conducted outdoors.[17]

A Zhukovsky air traffic controller declared:[18]

We issue warnings to every departing aircraft. The birds come to sit on the runway ⁠— ⁠there's the river and the dump nearby, so they're here constantly.

In September 2019, Rosaviatsiya proposed to work with law enforcement authorities to check the legality of waste dumps near airports, and will also examine the frequency of scheduled and unscheduled inspections of airports for the presence of birds.[20]

Reactions

Damir Yusupov (left) and Georgy Murzin (right) at the awards ceremony in the Kremlin, 21 November 2019

Shortly after the accident, Ural Airlines released a statement on Twitter stating: "Flight U6178 Zhukovsky-Simferopol on departure from Zhukovsky sustained multiple bird strikes to the aircraft engines. The aircraft made an emergency landing. There were no injuries to the passengers and crew."[21] The airline praised the professionalism of the pilots.[8]

On social media, immediate comparisons[22] were made between the accident and the "Miracle on the Hudson" incident involving US Airways Flight 1549.

The pilot in command, Damir Yusupov, and first officer, Georgy Murzin, were awarded the honorary title of Hero of the Russian Federation; the other five crew members were decorated with the Order of Courage.[23]

While being praised in Russia, the crew of the aircraft was entered into the blacklist of Ukrainian NGO Myrotvorets ("Peacemaker"), which accused them of "knowingly and on multiple occasions making illegal crossings of the state border of Ukraine".[24]

Author of the first Russian disaster movie Air Crew, Alexander Mitta, announced plans to make a film based on the events of Flight 178.[25]

Investigation

The Interstate Aviation Committee (Russian: Межгосударственный авиационный комитет, МАК) opened an investigation into the accident. The investigation was assisted by Rosaviatsiya, the British Air Accidents Investigation Branch, and the French Bureau of Enquiry and Analysis for Civil Aviation Safety. The cockpit voice recorder and flight data recorder were both successfully recovered and their data downloaded.[3]

Instead of being published, the report was leaked in August 2022. The report blames the pilots of several mistakes instead of heroism. An aviation journalist explained one of the main contributing factors was the Russian attitude of avoiding non-standard decisions such as holding on the runway and delaying the takeoff-run or even abort takeoff. Both the crew had seen the birds and were aware of them before takeoff begun, both were swearing because of the birds. As for the continuing events, the crew was described as disorganized as they didn't retract the undercarriage nor disabled the alarm gone off after autopilot disengagement. An emergency landing was not talked about in the cockpit, as a consequence the engines were not shut down on touchdown. Retracting the undercarriage in the last phase of the flight was interpreted as a measure to gain speed by the investigation, not as a preparation for an emergency landing as claimed by the pilots.[26]

Aftermath

After the accident, the aircraft was written off[3] and the airline announced that it would be demolished, recycled and scrapped, in an operation that was scheduled to commence on 23 August 2019.[13]

In culture

On March 16, 2023, the feature film Na solnce, vdol' riadov kukuruzy was released, depicting the emergency landing near Zhukovsky, starring Egor Beroev as Damir Yusupov.[27]

See also

References

  1. 1 2 3 Ranter, Harro. "VQ-BOZ accident details". aviation-safety.net. Aviation Safety Network. Retrieved 15 August 2019.
  2. 1 2 Cole, Brendan (15 August 2019). "Russian Plane With 234 People On Board Crash-lands in Cornfield After Birds Fly Into Engine Causing Fire, 23 Injured". Newsweek. Retrieved 15 August 2019.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Hradecky, Simon. "Accident: Ural A321 at Moscow on Aug 15th 2019, bird strike into both engines forces landing in corn field". Aviation Herald. Retrieved 15 August 2019.
  4. ↑ Nowack, Timo (15 August 2019). "A321 von Ural Airlines landet in Maisfeld" [A321 of Ural Airlies lands in cornfield] (in German). Aerotelegraph. Retrieved 15 August 2019.
  5. ↑ Chui, Sam (15 August 2019). "Ural Airlines A321 Bird Strikes Into Both Engines on Departure". samchui.com. Retrieved 18 August 2019.
  6. ↑ "Russia bird strike: 23 injured after plane hits gulls and crash-lands". BBC News. 15 August 2019. Retrieved 15 August 2019.
  7. ↑ "Passengers injured in emergency landing after Russian jet hits birds". CBS News. Retrieved 15 August 2019.
  8. 1 2 Fox, Kara (15 August 2019). "Russian jet crash-lands in field outside Moscow after striking flock of gulls". CNN. Retrieved 15 August 2019.
  9. ↑ "Число пострадавших при посадке A321 в поле возросло до 74 человек" [The number of injuries during the landing of A321 in the field reached 74]. ria.ru. 15 August 2019. Retrieved 19 August 2019.
  10. ↑ "Заявление на получение компенсации пассажирам рейса U6 178 Жуковский-Симферополь" [Application for compensation to passengers of flight U6 178 Zhukovsky-Simferopol]. www.uralairlines.ru (in Russian). Archived from the original on 2019-08-16. Retrieved 2019-08-19.
  11. ↑ "Ural Airlines VQ-BOZ (Airbus A321 - MSN 2117) (Ex TC-ETR TC-KTD)". www.airfleets.net. Airfleets aviation. Retrieved 2019-08-19.
  12. ↑ "VQ-BOZ Ural Airlines Airbus A321-200". www.planespotters.net. Retrieved 2019-08-19.
  13. 1 2 Kaminski-Morrow, David (22 August 2019). "Field-landing Ural A321 to be cut up and removed". Flightglobal.com.
  14. ↑ Ranter, Harro. "Airbus A321". aviation-safety.net. Retrieved 2019-08-27.
  15. 1 2 ""Они каждый у меня — граненый бриллиант". Об экипаже, сумевшем спасти сотни жизней" ["Each of them is a faceted diamond". About the crew, who managed to save hundreds of lives]. ТАСС (in Russian). Retrieved 2019-08-19.
  16. ↑ "Выпускники Бугурусланского лётного училища стали героями "второго чуда на Гудзоне"" [Graduates of the Buguruslan Flight School became the heroes of the “Second Miracle on the Hudson”]. orenburzhie.ru (in Russian). 15 August 2019. Retrieved 2019-08-19.
  17. 1 2 "Свалки и стаи птиц: что показала проверка территории вокруг аэродрома Жуковского" [Landfills and flocks of birds: as shown by a check of the territory around the Zhukovsky airfield] (in Russian). Retrieved 2019-08-18.
  18. 1 2 "Как владельцы свалок у аэропорта Жуковский связаны с губернатором Подмосковья" [How landfill owners at Zhukovsky airport are connected with the governor of the Moscow region] (in Russian). 2019-08-15. Retrieved 2019-08-19.
  19. ↑ "Легкая мишень для чаек" [Easy target for seagulls]. Новая газета (in Russian). 2019-08-17. Retrieved 2019-08-17.
  20. ↑ Kaminski-Morrow, David (5 September 2019). "Russian authorities to probe airports' exposure to bird risk". Flightglobal.com.
  21. ↑ @Ural_Air_Lines (August 15, 2019). "На рейсе U6178 Жуковский-Симферополь при вылете из Жуковского произошло многочисленное попадание птиц в двигатели самолета. Самолет совершил вынужденную посадку. Пассажиры и экипаж не пострадали" [Flight U6178 Zhukovsky-Simferopol on departure from Zhukovsky sustained multiple bird strikes to the aircraft engines. The aircraft made an emergency landing. There were no injuries to the passengers and crew.] (Tweet) (in Russian) – via Twitter.
  22. ↑ "Russia hails miracle after plane makes emergency landing in a cornfield". CNBC. 2019-08-15. Retrieved 2019-08-30.
  23. ↑ "Путин присвоил звания Героев России летчикам самолета, совершившего посадку под Жуковским" [Putin awarded the title of the Heroes of Russia to the pilots landed the aircraft near Zhukovsky] (in Russian). TASS. 2019-08-16. Retrieved 2019-08-16.
  24. ↑ "Plane crash-lands after hitting flock of birds". BBC. 15 August 2019. Retrieved 4 September 2019.
  25. ↑ "Это был бы мировой блокбастер" [It would be a global blockbuster] (in Russian). Komsomolskaya Pravda. 2019-08-15. Retrieved 2019-08-15.
  26. ↑ "Помните удивительную посадку самолета на кукурузном поле под Жуковским? Официальное расследование показало, что это вовсе не чудо, а результат многих ошибок пилотов" [Remember the amazing plane landing in a cornfield near Zhukovsky? The official investigation showed that this was not a miracle at all, but the result of many pilot errors.]. Meduza (in Russian). 2022-09-07. Retrieved 2023-07-15.
  27. ↑ Bausov, Artyom (2023-03-16). "Посмотрел российский фильм «На солнце, вдоль рядов кукурузы» про падение самолета в 2019 году. Как воды попил" [Watch the Russian film "In the sun, along the rows of corn" about the plane crash in 2019. How to drink water]. iPhones.ru (in Russian). Retrieved 2023-04-06.
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