Red Wings Airlines Flight 9268

Red Wings Airlines Flight 9268

File:RA-64047.jpg RA-64047, the aircraft involved in the accident, pictured during the flight before crashing.
Accident summary
Date	December 29, 2012
Summary	Overran runway on landing, struck elevated highway and broke up
Site	Vnukovo International Airport, Moscow, Russia
Passengers	0
Crew	8
Injuries (non-fatal)	3
Fatalities	5
Survivors	3
Aircraft type	Tupolev Tu-204-100B
Operator	Red Wings Airlines
Registration	RA-64047
Flight origin	Pardubice Airport, Pardubice, Czech Republic
Destination	Vnukovo International Airport, Moscow, Russia

Red Wings Airlines Flight 9268 was a repositioning flight that, on December 29, 2012 at 16:35 local time (12:35 GMT), crashed after overrunning Runway 19 at Moscow Vnukovo International Airport following a flight from Pardubice Airport, Czech Republic. The aircraft, a Tupolev Tu-204, broke up after the overrun, killing 5 of its crew of 8 (there were no passengers). The accident marked the second hull-loss of a Tupolev Tu-204, as well as the type's first (and so far only) fatal accident since its introduction in 1989.

Incident details

According to Vnukovo airport authorities, there were eight crew members onboard and no passengers. There were five fatalities. The aircraft overran the runway, splitting into three sections upon running into a ditch between the airport fence and the M3 highway, with parts of it, including the cockpit, spilling onto the road. The cockpit section of the aircraft became detached from the rest of the airframe.

It had been snowing prior to the accident and there was a significant cross wind with gusts of up to 29 knots. The aircraft, a Tupolev Tu-204-100B (reg RA-64047, c/n 1450743164047, s/n 047) was built in 2008. The airframe had accumulated 8,672 flight hours in 2,482 cycles, while the captain had more than 14,500 hours of total flying experience, of which more than 3,000 hours were on incident type. The accident was the first hull loss for Red Wings Airlines since its founding in 1999.

RA-64047, the aircraft involved in the incident in 2011, a year before the crash.

The Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs (МВД) reported that the captain, first officer, flight engineer and one flight attendant were killed on impact. Of the remaining four crew members, a female subsequently died of her injuries while the other three were in critical condition.

Those killed in the crash were Capt. Gennady Shmelev, 58 (Геннадий Шмелев), First Officer Evgeniy Astashenkov, 52 (Евгений Асташенков), Flight Engineer Igor Fisenko, 54 (Игорь Фисенко) and Flight Attendant Evgeniya Zhigalina, 25 (Евгения Жигалина). A second Flight Attendant, Tatiana Penkina, 31 (Татьяна Пенкина), died in a Moscow hospital the day after the accident.

The December 29 accident was the second runway overrun involving a Red Wings operated Tu-204-100B in nine days. A Moscow Vnukovo to Novosibirsk flight on December 20, 2012 overran runway 25 at Tolmachevo Airport by 1,150 feet (350 meters) when its brakes failed on landing. As a result of that incident, on December 24 the Federal Air Transport Agency of Russia (Rosaviatsia) issued a mandatory Airworthiness Directive requiring Red Wings and all other operators of the Tu-204 to inspect and apply extra lubrication to the braking system drive mechanism limit switches, located on the main landing shock absorber, "before next departure". On December 28, the day before the fatal Vnukovo accident, Rosaviatsia also formally notified Tupolev, the aircraft's manufacturer, that malfunctioning brakes had caused the Red Wings Tu-204 overrun accident at Novosibirsk. On December 30 Rosaviatsia chief Alexander Neradko announced that a preliminary examination of the aircraft's flight data recorder indicated that the flight had touched down in the proper landing area but, as in the December 20 incident in Novosibirsk, the braking system on RA-64047 appeared to have failed in the fatal Moscow overrun accident as well.

While the accident aircraft has been written off, Red Wings Airlines remains the largest operator of the type, with eight remaining in service. The only other Tu-204 to suffer a hull loss accident was RA-64011 which as Aviastar-TU Flight 1906 crashed while attempting to land in heavy fog at Domodedovo International Airport in Moscow on March 22, 2010 as it was completing a non-revenue repositioning operation from Hurghada International Airport in Egypt. While four of the eight crew members were seriously injured, all survived the accident.

Sequence of events

Approach was carried out on the runway 19 at Vnukovo Airport with length of 3060m. Piloting was done by the captain. Before entering the glide path the aircraft was in landing configuration with flaps deployed at 37 °, slats - at 23 °, and the landing gear down. Decision height was calculated to be 60 m. Landing weight of the aircraft was approximately 67.5 tons, alignment - ~26.5%, which does not exceed the limits set by the flight manual (AFM). During preparation for landing the captain has determined the landing speed as 210 km/h, and specified that the speed of at least 230 km/h has to be maintained. Descent was done in the director mode with autothrottle disabled with an average instrument speed of about 255 km/h and vertical speed -3...-5 m/s. Descent was performed without significant deviations from the glide path. Flyby of the neighboring (to the runway) homing beacon was performed at an altitude of 65...70 m. End of the runway was passed at the height of 15 meters and airspeed of 260 km/h. 5 seconds after the throttle had been switched to the idle mode, the aircraft landed with the speed of 230 km/h, distance from the runway threshold of 900-1000m and left bank of 1... 1.5°.

At this point the signal of left gear strut compression was produced. During the landing the right side wind gusts reached up to ~11.5 m/s. The maximal value of the vertical acceleration speed during touchdown was recorded as 1.12g. About 10 seconds have passed from the moment of passing the 4m altitude point and the touchdown. 3 seconds after that the touchdown nose gear strut was compressed. At this stage the right gear strut compression signal had not yet been formed. Almost simultaneously with the touchdown of the nose landing gear the crew moved in one motion the engine controls to the "maximum reverse" position and applied mechanical brakes. Actuation of the valves of reversing systems on both engines did not happen. Air brakes and spoilers also were not activated automatically and the crew did not attempt to activate them manually. After thrust levers were moved to the "maximum reverse" position an increase of forward thrust (up to 90% Nvd) was recorded with both engines. The pressure in the hydraulic system of wheel brakes of the left (compressed) landing gear was up to 50 kgf/cm², whereas there were no pressure in the wheel brakes of the right (not compressed) landing gear. The minimum airspeed to which the aircraft slowed 7–8 seconds after landing was 200–205 km/h at ~ 0° pitch and roll of 1° to the left. After that the speed began to increase. 2 seconds after the thrust levers were moved to the "maximum reverse" position the flight engineer reported that reversers had not been deployed. Thrust lever had been maintained in the "maximum reverse" position for about 8 seconds and was switched off after that. During this time the airspeed increased to 240 km/h. The increase in speed led to further unloading of the main landing gear. With fluctuations in roll (from 4.5° to the left to 2.6° to the right) compression signals was produced alternately on the left and right landing gear struts. The signal of simultaneous compression of both struts (needed for thrust reversers deployment) was not produced. Almost simultaneously with the reversers being switched off, the brake pedal was pushed by the captain to 60°. As before, the braking was inefficient since by design the hydraulic pressure in the wheel brake is only applied after sufficient compression of the gear strut. 5 seconds after reversers were deactivated, after the words of the flight engineer "Reverse! Turn on reverse!" the pilots again moved the controls to the "maximum reverse" position. As in the first attempt, the deployment of reversers did not happen, both of the engines again started to produce direct thrust (at Nvd ~ 84%). Braking of the aircraft again did not happen, and the airspeed was increased to 230...240 km/h. The reversers were switched off 4 seconds after that. At the time of reverser reactivation the aircraft was at the distance of about 950...1000 m from the exit threshold. 6 seconds after the switchoff of the reversers, the crew attempted to apply automatic braking, as evidenced by the crew conversation and transient appearance of commands "Automatic braking on" for the primary and backup subsystems. When the aircraft passed the exit threshold thrust levers were in the "small-reverse" position.

The aircraft skidded off the runway 32 seconds after landing, being almost on the axis of the runway with an air speed of about 215 km/h. In the process of skidding off at the command of the captain the flight engineer turned off the engines by means of the emergency brake. The plane continued to roll outside the runway slowly braking due to road bumps and snow cover. At this point the compression on both landing gear struts happened which led to the activation of air brakes and spoilers. The plane collided with the slope of a ravine at the ground speed of about 190 km/h.

Further reading

• Kaminski-Morrow, David. "Pilots killed as Red Wings Tu-204 crashes on Moscow highway." Flight International. 29 December 2012.
• Kaminski-Morrow, David. "Crashed Tu-204 powered forward as pilots tried reversing thrust." Flight International. 24 January 2013.

External links

• Ту-204 RA-64047 29.12.2012 - Interstate Aviation Committee (Official investigation) (Russian) (Archive)
  • Final report (Archive) (Russian)
• EMERCOM of Russia
  • "In accordance with an order of Emergency Ministry’s Head Vladimir Puchkov all necessary emergency response and recovery operations are continued." 29 December 2012. Print, PDF, Word
  • "Minister Vladimir Puchkov held an operational teleconference on the crash of Tu-204 airliner and gave instructions to all relevant services." 29 December 2012. Print, PDF. Word
• Red Wings Airlines (Archive, Archive 2) (Russian)
• Accident: Red Wings T204 at Moscow on Dec 29th 2012, overran runway on landing, Simon Hradecky, The Aviation Herald.
• Airliners.net Flight 9268 preparing for departure in a photo by Karel Bohac, December 29, 2012
• Dashcam footage from passing vehicle - LiveLeak