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- The usual inspection: The maintenance of Angara aircraft often took place only on paper
The usual inspection: The maintenance of Angara aircraft often took place only on paper
A month before the crash of the An-24 aircraft, Rostransnadzor conducted an inspection of the Angara airline and revealed many violations, Izvestia found out. Most of the complaints related to the maintenance of its aircraft — for example, sometimes, according to the documents, it was "carried out" by specialists who had a day off on that day. As a result of the inspection, eight aircraft were temporarily suspended from flights, and four airline employees were suspended from maintenance. Angara has received an order from the supervisory authority to eliminate violations as soon as possible. 48 people died in a plane crash near Tynda on July 24. What else is known about the crashed passenger plane and how they will provide assistance to the relatives of the victims is in the Izvestia article.
What happened to the AN-24: a chronicle of the tragedy
The AN-24 aircraft of Angara Airlines disappeared from radar on July 24 at 07.05 Moscow time a few kilometers from the airport of the city of Tynda in the Amur region. The flight was Khabarovsk — Blagoveshchensk —Tynda.
The plane took off from Khabarovsk on July 24 at 7.30 a.m. local time and was already in Blagoveshchensk at 8.20 a.m. Some of the passengers got off there, and the plane was delayed for two hours due to non-flying weather, Sergey Salamanov, CEO of Angara, told Izvestia.
"Then the commander made the decision to carry out the flight," he said.
The plane missed Tynda by only 32 km and crashed in the taiga, where it was discovered by a helicopter of the Ministry of Emergency Situations Mi-8. The wreckage of the AN-24 fuselage lay on a mountainside in a remote area. Rescuers got there only in the evening.
There were 48 people on board the aircraft — 42 passengers (five of them children) and six crew members. There are no survivors.
On the morning of the same day, an airmobile and ground rescue team of 149 specialists and 21 pieces of equipment moved to the crash site, the Ministry of Emergency Situations reported. The Interstate Aviation Committee (IAC) has launched an investigation into the disaster.
Vladimir Putin expressed his condolences to the relatives of the deceased passengers.
What is known about the crashed plane
The plane that crashed in the Irkutsk region was 49 years old — it had been in use since 1976. During operation, the aircraft was operated by various airlines: Aeroflot, Nizhny Novgorod Airlines, Izhavia, RusLine and a number of others. Angara has been operating it since July 2021. At the same time, the aircraft was issued an airworthiness certificate until 2036. Now there is the last entry in his history — "Catastrophe".
According to the data RussianPlanes.net There was one aviation accident over this side. In December 2018, while taxiing at the Bodaibo airfield in the Irkutsk region, the side of the left wing console touched the lighting mast. But incidents with other planes of the company are known.
So, on March 12, 2020, the Irkutsk Regional Court ruled in the case of the administrative offense of Angara under Article 11.30 of the Administrative Code of the Russian Federation (on concealment of an aviation accident), according to the SPARK database. What kind of emergency is in question is not specified.
In 2021, Rostransnadzor conducted an unscheduled inspection of Angara Airlines. It was caused by an aviation incident involving a company-owned Mi-8T helicopter in March 2021, according to documents published in the SPARK database.
Two months before the tragedy, on May 26, 2025, the same An-24 company, but with a different tail number, rolled off the runway due to a broken landing gear. The incident occurred in Kirensk, Irkutsk region. The aircraft rammed the runway with its nose during landing. Then none of the passengers were injured, but the supervisory authorities began to actively check the company.
According to the results of the Rostransnadzor inspection, which took place in June of this year, eight vessels were temporarily suspended from operation, follows from the department's documents, which were reviewed by Izvestia. In addition, the inspectors had questions about the maintenance of airplanes and helicopters.
Maintenance was carried out without compliance with technology and airworthiness directives, by personnel who did not have the appropriate qualification training, follows from the Rosaviation document.
For example, according to the company's documents, a one-time inspection of the control unit was performed on AN-24RV aircraft numbered RA-46662 and RA-46697. However, the inspectors found out that the special tools with which they were supposed to check the aircraft were not issued.
Other planes were inspected by technicians who, according to the results of the inspection, did not officially appear at work that day — they had a day off. Some engineers and technicians did not have the necessary work experience confirmed.
As a result of the inspections, four engineering and technical staff were suspended from maintenance work, follows from a letter from Alexander Prokhodtsev, deputy head of Rostransnadzor, to Vladimir Zabolotsky, Managing director of Angara.
"I ask you to provide a plan to eliminate the identified violations, a report on the causes and measures taken to prevent them," the agency said in a letter to the airline.
The act of the unscheduled on—site inspection was signed less than a month before the tragedy - on July 8, 2025.
In online reviews of the Angara company, passengers complain about the high wear on An-24 aircraft.
"Of course, I understand everything, a small airline and all that, but, damn, the last year of production of the aircraft was 1976. It's a month out in 2025. In no case do I recommend risking your health and nerves by flying on this aircraft, which is almost 50 years old. It's better to take two or three days longer, but it's quiet and by train," wrote user Daniel in November 2024.
Angara replied that "the service life of the An-24 aircraft has been extended to 60 years — they can continue to be safely operated until the 2030s."
Another passenger who flew aboard the Angara in January 2024 from Irkutsk to Bodaibo wrote: "I wanted to cry. There are no words. Ahtung. At the end of the flight, the ceiling came off (...) Thank God we flew (...) How do you work for such an airline?"
The crashed plane was technically sound, and the aircraft commander was an experienced pilot, he had about 11,000 flight hours, said Sergey Salamanov, CEO of Angara.
"You understand that the plane is 49 years old, and no serious accidents have occurred during this period," he said.
The crew of the crashed An-24 included six people. The captain of the aircraft, 61-year—old Vyacheslav Logvinov, is an experienced pilot, a graduate of the military flight school. The co—pilot is 37-year-old Kirill Plaksin. Anastasia Bessmertnaya, 44, is a flight attendant with almost twenty years of experience and a mother of two children. Flight mechanic Vladimir Vokhmintsev and the company's technical service engineers Vitaly Koltunov and Alexey Lysenko.
Co-pilot Kirill Plaksin was supposed to attend a meeting of the Oktyabrsky District Court of Irkutsk on July 24. He was a defendant in the case of an administrative offense under Article 6.9, Part 1 of the Administrative Code of the Russian Federation, which is related to the refusal of a medical examination in connection with the consumption of narcotic drugs or psychotropic substances, Izvestia found out. The meeting was scheduled to take place at 5:45 p.m.
What the experts said
Any plane crash can have three main causes: failure of aircraft equipment, difficult weather conditions and crew error, Honored pilot of Russia Mikhail Sytnik told Izvestia. According to him, the error version is always considered last — when the other two have already been checked.
"The AN—24 is a reliable and proven aircraft," the pilot said. — I've never had any complaints. And it's not necessary to say that the car was old. It all depends not on the age, but on the condition of the aircraft. If it's working properly, nothing should have happened to it.
Mikhail Sytnik added that the AN-24 was the main aircraft for local airlines. He had practically no episodes of aircraft failure — he could fly with one engine to the destination airport or to the nearest airfield.
"The pilots on this aircraft gained a lot of experience in manual piloting and decision—making in special cases," the pilot noted. — And then they turned out to be very good commanders of other types of aircraft, more spacious and long-haul. The only thing this plane was afraid of was wing icing, but they learned to deal with it a long time ago.
During landing, the crew most likely made a premature descent, as a result of which the plane collided with the ground, Honored pilot of the USSR Georges Shishkin told Izvestia.
"It's not the fault of the crew, it's a systemic problem of our entire civil aviation," the pilot said. — This was caused by the loss of the domestic aviation fleet and a high-quality flight training school for pilots. It is necessary to treat the system, then the crew will not make such mistakes.
There is virtually no alternative to the An-24 and AN-26 aircraft, Andrey Patrakov, founder of the RunAvia flight safety service, told Izvestia.
"Imported vehicles, including the Czech L—410 and others, have been decommissioned due to sanctions, lack of spare parts and the inability to extend their airworthiness," he said. — The whole burden fell on the old An-24. Their operation has become more intensive, although they are approaching the limit of their resource, which is determined by the developer at 50 years.
According to Andrey Patrakov, in March of this year, airlines asked to extend the life of these aircraft to 60 years, since IL-114 aircraft are unlikely to enter the routes en masse in the coming years — new machines have been developed for decades, the expert noted.
The peculiarity of the AN-24 and AN-26 is their unpretentiousness, Oleg Panteleev, executive director of the Aviport agency, told Izvestia.
— These are "flying SUVs" that can perform safe flights from unpaved lanes, — he said. — Strictly speaking, where there is no normal infrastructure, the AN-24 and AN-26 are practically indispensable.
There are foreign-made aircraft such as the ATR-42 in Russia, but the list of airfields where they operate is limited, the expert added. In many places in the Far East and the North, planting them is risky.
—The AN-24 and AN-26 have not revealed any production and structural defects that make the operation of this equipment dangerous,— Oleg Panteleev said. — But there is another factor. Today, neither engines nor many units for them are produced anymore. Due to expensive repairs, Soviet aircraft will stop flying, as their operation will be unprofitable.
As the Rostec press service told Izvestia, UAC is creating the IL-114-300 and the import-substituted Superjet-100 as aircraft for regional aviation, which will begin to be delivered to the market in 2026.
In addition to Angara, 13 An-24 aircraft are operated by Polar Airlines, ten by UTair, seven by Iraero, and four by Krasavia. Alrosa and Khabarovsk Airlines have three planes each, Amur and Chukotavia have one each.
What did the passengers' relatives tell us
Izvestia spoke with the relatives of the deceased passengers and crew members. Elena, the mother of 37-year-old An-24 pilot Kirill Plaksin, said that she last spoke with her son on Wednesday, July 23.
"He had the day off, and we talked," she recalled.
According to her, her son told her that he had to go to work on Thursday, July 24.
Five Russian Railways employees were killed in the crash, the ministry said. Among them is 32-year-old Sergey Shiyan, who worked for Russian Railways as a leading engineer for the operation of technical facilities. On July 24, he flew on vacation.
Sergey was a cheerful and optimistic person who always smiled, said his friend Egor Malkov. He learned about the tragedy from Izvestia journalists.
The wife of one of the dead passengers, 46-year-old Denis Pleskach, said that her husband contacted her during the transfer.
"He informed me that the plane was delayed in Blagoveshchensk,— she said.
Marina Avalyan shared the story of her amazing rescue. She was on the plane's passenger list and could have been among the dead. But at the last moment, the woman decided to cancel the trip.
"My granddaughter got sick, I returned home and decided to stay with the children," Marina said.
Another passenger, Angelina Semenova, flew on an AN-24 plane from Khabarovsk to Blagoveshchensk on July 24 in a company of four people. She told Izvestia that she was scared during the flight — the girl, according to her, "had never seen such old planes." Besides, there was no briefing on board.
"It was very noisy on the plane, it rattled so much that we couldn't feel our legs," she added. — And then, when we started to descend, steam began to seep out of all the cracks. The flight attendant said it was condensation.
The authorities' reaction to the plane crash
To eliminate the consequences of the tragedy, Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin created a government commission. It was headed by the Minister of Transport Andrey Nikitin, who, together with the head of the Federal Air Transport Agency Dmitry Yadrov, flew to the crash site.
A telephone hotline has been opened for the relatives of the deceased passengers. The federal government said they would all receive monetary compensation.
A 24-hour operational headquarters has been set up in the Amur Region to coordinate efforts to eliminate the consequences of the plane crash, the governor of the region, Vasily Orlov, said on his channel.
Khabarovsk Territory Governor Dmitry Demeshin also said that the families of the victims would receive compensation of 1 million rubles from the regional government.
Three days of mourning have been declared in both regions.
The Investigative Committee opened a criminal case on the tragedy under Part 3 of Article 263 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation — violation of the rules of movement and operation of air transport, which negligently resulted in the death of more than two persons.
Переведено сервисом «Яндекс Переводчик»
