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2001 Omsk An-70 crash
Accident
UR-NTK at the accident site
Date	27 January 2001 (2001-01-27)
Summary	Multiple engine failure
Site	660 meters from departure runway 54°58′0″N 73°18′30″E / 54.96667°N 73.30833°E / 54.96667; 73.30833
Aircraft
Aircraft type	Antonov An-70
Operator	Antonov Design Bureau
Registration	UR-NTK
Flight origin	Omsk Airport, Russia
Destination	Yakutsk Airport, Russia
Occupants	33
Passengers	22
Crew	11
Fatalities	0
Injuries	4
Survivors	33

On 27 January 2001, an Antonov An-70 prototype crashed close to Omsk Tsentralny Airport, Russia during testing of the aircraft. All 33 passengers and crew on board the aircraft survived.

The accident involved the sole surviving An-70 prototype, as the first prototype had been destroyed in a mid-air collision six years previously. This placed the future of the An-70 project in doubt; however, the aircraft was later repaired and returned to flight.

Accident

The aircraft arrived at Omsk at 0:30 and was refueled with 38 tons of jet fuel. 5 hours after landing, the aircraft lifted off the runway on its way to Yakutsk for cold weather testing. Within seconds of becoming airborne one of the Progress D-27 propfans reached an over-speed condition and automatically shut down. The forward propeller stopped rotating but due to the nature of the failure the aft propeller kept turning, producing negative thrust. At this point the flight crew increased power to the remaining three engines but a problem with the RPM sensors on one of them led to automatic engine shut-off. Thus, the An-70 ended up flying at low speed with only two properly functioning engines, with the third engine generating over 11,000 pounds of negative thrust and disrupting airflow across the wing.

The crew successfully made a 180-degree turn to head back towards departure airport but crash landed hard in the snow and ice within several hundred yards of the runway. Of the 33 people aboard (11 crew and 22 specialists from Antonov), 4 were injured, 1 seriously. The accident investigators found that the pilots acted with remarkable skill to turn the aircraft around and crash-land it on the field without lowering the landing gear.

Aircraft

UR-NTK was one of two An-70 prototype transport planes produced. Prototype 1 was destroyed in a mid-air collision in 1995. The fuselage of Prototype 2 was completely fractured between the midsection and the tail by the heavy landing during this incident. The plane was insured but only for $1 million - a fraction of its actual cost. The aircraft was disassembled on site and relocated to the local "Polyot" aircraft repair factory in Omsk and restored to flying condition. The damaged airframe required months of repair and as of 2012 is the only AN-70 in existence, still performing important flight testing.

Investigation

Three possibilities for the accident were investigated. Engine/Prop malfunction, fuel or oil defects in sub-zero temperatures leading to fuel starvation due to water in the fuel system freezing, or an act of sabotage or terrorism. Sabotage & terrorism were investigated by Russia's FSB which found no corroborating evidence. The fuel crystallization theory was discounted very early by the team of experts investigating the accident, leaving an engine or a propeller malfunction the only remaining possibility.

Causes

The cause of the crash landing of the An-70 near Omsk remained the subject of much debate for a long time and the reason for heated exchange of accusations between the Antonov Design Bureau and the OAO Motor-Sich - the manufacturer of the D-27 engine. The manufacturer of the SV-27 propeller - Aerosila - also received some blame.

A report released by the investigation team in mid-March, by Ukrainian "Aviation and Time" magazine, provided preliminary details into the cause. According to the report, immediately after take-off one of the engines was automatically shut off by its electronic safeguards after it exceeded the safe RPM limit. The front set of blades of the contra rotating propeller assembly stopped but the aft part of the propeller assembly continued turning due to the damaged oil line that powered the blade actuators. This caused the negative air flow estimated at 5,000 kg/11,023 lbs. of thrust.

At the end of March 2001 Antonov's first deputy designer-general Dmitri Kiva provided further details about the cause announcing that the accident was caused by disintegration of the oil line leading to the propeller hub pitch mechanism that attaches to the engine. Kiva said that the pilots attempted to compensate for the loss of power by increasing the settings of the remaining three engines. At some point another D-27 automatically shut off after the safe RPM limit has been exceeded.

Consequences

The aircraft was repaired for approximately $3 million and made its first flight after the catastrophe on 5 June of the same year. On 7 June 2001, the repaired An-70 made a successful appearance at the VVTV-2001 armaments expo in Omsk.

Previously, in early May, An-70 developers announced that the aircraft would be presented at the 2001 Paris Air Show, but after the VVTV-2001 show in Omsk, France excluded the An-70 from the air show citing the aircraft's alleged poor safety record.

The engine/propeller problems were compounded on the pages of Russian newspapers by the existing problems in relations between Russia and Ukraine. Much of this negative publicity was instigated by competitors of Antonov, specifically ZMKB "Progress" and OAO Motor-Sich in Russia and in the West. In reality, however, Ukrainian engine designers and manufacturers had little to do with the cause of the accident. The faulty propeller hub pitch mechanism was manufactured in Russia.

Notes

"AN-70 Crash Disrupts..." Aviation Week & Space Technology. 5 February 2001.
^ "An-70". Archived from the original on 30 November 2014. Retrieved 29 November 2014.
"An-70 News". www.cthomas.de. Archived from the original on 3 March 2016. Retrieved 30 March 2018.

References

v t e Aviation accidents and incidents in 2001 (2001)
Jan 23 Yemenia Flight 448Jan 25 RUTACA Airlines Flight 225Jan 27 Omsk An-70 crashJan 27 Oklahoma State basketball team crashJan 31 Japan Airlines mid-air incidentFeb 7 Iberia Flight 1456Feb 27 Loganair Flight 670AMar 3 Thai Airways International Flight 114Mar 15 Vnukovo Airlines Flight 2806Mar 24 Air Caraïbes Flight 1501Mar 29 Avjet Gulfstream III crashApr 1 Hainan Island incidentApr 20 Peru shootdownMay 17 Faraz Qeshm Airlines Yak-40 crashJul 4 Vladivostok Air Flight 352Aug 24 Air Transat Flight 236Aug 25 Marsh Harbour Cessna 402 crashAug 29 Binter Mediterráneo Flight 8261Sep 11 American Airlines Flight 11Sep 11 United Airlines Flight 175Sep 11 American Airlines Flight 77Sep 11 United Airlines Flight 93Sep 11 Delta Air Lines Flight 1989Sep 11 Korean Air Flight 085Sep 15 TAM Airlines Flight 9755Sep 17 Grozny Mi-8 crashSep 21 Aeroflot Flight 521Oct 4 Siberia Airlines Flight 1812Oct 8 2001 Linate Airport runway collisionOct 10 Flightline Flight 101Nov 12 American Airlines Flight 587Nov 12 Fishtail Air Eurocopter AS350 crashNov 19 IRS Aero Flight 9601/02Nov 24 Crossair Flight 3597Dec 2 AFRF Flight 9064Dec 22 American Airlines Flight 63
2000 ◄ ► 2002

Aviation accidents and incidents in 2001 (2001)

Jan 23 Yemenia Flight 448Jan 25 RUTACA Airlines Flight 225Jan 27 Omsk An-70 crashJan 27 Oklahoma State basketball team crashJan 31 Japan Airlines mid-air incidentFeb 7 Iberia Flight 1456Feb 27 Loganair Flight 670AMar 3 Thai Airways International Flight 114Mar 15 Vnukovo Airlines Flight 2806Mar 24 Air Caraïbes Flight 1501Mar 29 Avjet Gulfstream III crashApr 1 Hainan Island incidentApr 20 Peru shootdownMay 17 Faraz Qeshm Airlines Yak-40 crashJul 4 Vladivostok Air Flight 352Aug 24 Air Transat Flight 236Aug 25 Marsh Harbour Cessna 402 crashAug 29 Binter Mediterráneo Flight 8261Sep 11 American Airlines Flight 11Sep 11 United Airlines Flight 175Sep 11 American Airlines Flight 77Sep 11 United Airlines Flight 93Sep 11 Delta Air Lines Flight 1989Sep 11 Korean Air Flight 085Sep 15 TAM Airlines Flight 9755Sep 17 Grozny Mi-8 crashSep 21 Aeroflot Flight 521Oct 4 Siberia Airlines Flight 1812Oct 8 2001 Linate Airport runway collisionOct 10 Flightline Flight 101Nov 12 American Airlines Flight 587Nov 12 Fishtail Air Eurocopter AS350 crashNov 19 IRS Aero Flight 9601/02Nov 24 Crossair Flight 3597Dec 2 AFRF Flight 9064Dec 22 American Airlines Flight 63

2000 ◄ ► 2002

v t e Aviation accidents and incidents in the Russian Federation in the 2000s
2001	Omsk An-70 crash (January 2001) Vladivostok Air Flight 352 (July 2001) Grozny Mi-8 crash (September 2001) Siberia Airlines Flight 1812 (October 2001) IRS Aero Flight 9601/02 (November 2001) Armed Forces of the Russian Federation Flight 9064 (December 2001)
2002	Shelkovskaya Mi-8 crash (January 2002) Pulkovo Aviation Enterprise Flight 9560 (July 2002) Khankala Mi-26 crash (August 2002)
2004	Russian aircraft bombings (August 2004)
2005	Regional Airlines Flight 9288 (March 2005)
2006	Armavia Flight 967 (May 2006) S7 Airlines Flight 778 (July 2006)
2007	UTair Flight 471 (March 2007) Shatoy Mi-8 crash (April 2007)
2008	Moskovia Airlines Flight 9675 (May 2008) Aeroflot Flight 821 (September 2008)
2009	Makhachkala Il-76 collision (January 2009) Yakutia Il-76 crash (November 2009)
1990–1999 ◄ 2000–2009 ► 2010–2019

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