Aeroflot Flight 229

Aeroflot Flight 229

Il-12 of Aeroflot
Accident
Date	14 June 1953 (1953-06-14)
Summary	ATC error, in-flight wing breakup in severe thunderstorm
Site	near Grigolishi (now Alertkari), 15 km from Zugdidi
Aircraft
Aircraft type	Ilyushin Il-12P
Operator	Aeroflot (Georgian TU GVF, 112 OAO)
Registration	CCCP-Л1375
Flight origin	Vnukovo Airport, Moscow
1st stopover	Rostov-on-Don Airport
Last stopover	Pashkovsky Airport, Krasnodar
Destination	Tbilisi Airport
Passengers	12
Crew	6
Fatalities	18
Survivors	0

Aeroflot Flight 229 was an aviation accident involving an Il-12P aircraft of Aeroflot, which occurred on Sunday, 14 June 1953 near Zugdidi, resulting in the deaths of 18 people.

The Il-12P with registration number CCCP-Л1375 (factory number 30103, serial number 103) was manufactured on September 28 1947 by the "Znamya Truda" plant (Moscow). The airliner was delivered to the Main Directorate of the Civil Air Fleet, which then assigned it to the 112th (Tbilisi) combined aviation detachment of the Georgian territorial administration of the civil air fleet. The aircraft had accumulated a total of 3,204 flight hours.^[1][2]

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• Captain – Nikolai Ivanovich Bozhenko
• Co-pilot – Irakliy Iosifovich Khakhutashvili
• Flight engineer – Mikhail Ivanovich Lebedev
• Navigator – Vadim Apollonovich Cherepanov
• Radio instructor – Georgy Vladimirovich Lominadze
• Radio operator – Musa Ismailovich Koguashvili

The aircraft was operating passenger flight 229 from Moscow to Rostov-on-Don to Tbilisi and departed from Vnukovo Airport at 05:20. The flight to Rostov was uneventful, after which the aircraft took off for Tbilisi. According to documents, there were 10 passengers and 6 crew members on board, totaling 16 people. However, it was later established that there were two unauthorized passengers: the eight-year-old daughter of the chief engineer of the Georgian territorial administration of the civil air fleet boarded in Moscow, and another unauthorized passenger, the co-pilot of a Li-2 aircraft from the same administration, boarded in Rostov-on-Don.^[1]

Thunderstorms were present along the route from Krasnodar to Sukhumi. At 10:48, CCCP-Л1375 made an unscheduled stop at Pashkovsky Airport in Krasnodar due to the thunderstorms. Once the storms subsided, the crew, after checking the weather situation, departed from Krasnodar at 15:02 for Tbilisi. At 16:02, while flying at an altitude of 2,400 meters, the aircraft entered the Tbilisi Regional Air Traffic Control's zone. At 16:17, Flight 229 reported passing over the Sukhumi Airport, and at 16:23, it reported leaving the airport's airspace. At 16:31, the crew reported to Tbilisi that Sukhumi was passed at 16:17, and the aircraft was flying between cloud layers. After this, there were no further communications from the crew. The wreckage of the aircraft was found directly along the flight path on a forested slope near the village of Grigolishi (now Alertkari) and 15 kilometers northeast of Zugdidi. All 18 people on board were killed, with two passengers being ejected from the aircraft at a low altitude.^[1] At the time, this was the largest aviation disaster in the history of Georgia.

• Nato Vachnadze (born June 14, 1904) — Soviet Georgian actress, People's Artist of the Georgian SSR, Honored Artist of the RSFSR.^{[citation needed]}

The investigation revealed that thunderstorms on the route from Krasnodar to Sukhumi, which had forced Flight 229 to make an unscheduled stop in Krasnodar, were observed from 7 to 13 hours. Later, thunderstorms began to appear along different sections of the Sukhumi — Kutaisi — Surami route, emerging quite rapidly. Specifically, a thunderstorm was observed near Zugdidi at 16:15 and in Kutaisi by 17:30. The AMS issued a weather forecast indicating thunderstorms from 16:00 to 19:00 along the Sukhumi to Tbilisi route, with thunderstorms expected between Mikha-Tskhakaya and Kutaisi. However, the flight operations manager at Sukhumi Airport did not adequately consider the deteriorating weather conditions from Sukhumi to Kutaisi and allowed the Il-12 aircraft to pass through the airspace and continue to Tbilisi.^[1]

According to local residents, a severe thunderstorm with hail and heavy rain, accompanied by frequent lightning strikes, occurred in the area of the incident. The crew was not expecting a thunderstorm, so its encounter came as a complete surprise. There is a possibility that lightning struck the aircraft, partially incapacitating the crew, causing the uncontrolled aircraft to either enter a dive or an uncontrolled descent. However, the crew regained control during the descent and attempted to avert a crash, pulling the yokes up sharply at an altitude of around 300 meters, attempting to lift the aircraft's nose. This maneuver resulted in an overload that exceeded the critical threshold, causing the wings to break off at the outer sections between the 9th and 14th ribs (outboard of the engines). With significant portions of the wings missing, the aircraft was unable to continue flight, and the fuselage, with engines running, plunged vertically to the ground, where it was destroyed and burned. The detached wing sections fell 120 meters from the wreckage and 50 meters from each other.^[1]

The commission concluded that the immediate cause of the aircraft's crash was its unexpected entry into thunderstorm clouds. This was facilitated by violations in the actions of the flight operations manager at Sukhumi Airport, who knew that weather conditions along the route had significantly worsened but did not require CCCP-Л1375 to land at his airport, instead allowing it to pass through the airport's airspace without informing the crew of the potential thunderstorm danger along the route. The Sukhumi controller, in contact with colleagues at the Tbilisi regional center, also did not inform them of the aircraft's passage, nor did he seek guidance on the continuation of the flight. The flight operations manager in Tbilisi also exhibited lapses, not knowing the actual weather conditions on the route from Sukhumi to Tbilisi, and failing to request a weather forecast from the Tbilisi AMS for that section of the route. He was aware that two flights had been delayed due to poor weather conditions. Flight 229 was only given a formal clearance to enter the Tbilisi regional air traffic control zone at an altitude of 2,400 meters under visual flight rules, with no further flight guidance provided. In Tbilisi, there was poor communication between the flight operations manager and the AMS weather station, leading to the latter being unaware of upcoming flights through the Tbilisi air traffic control zone, while air traffic controllers received weather updates and storm warnings with delays.^[1]

The flight operations managers at the Sukhumi and Tbilisi airports, as well as the Sukhumi airport manager, who could have but did not prohibit Flight 229 from passing through the airspace, were deemed responsible for the crash.^[1]

At the time, the disaster was surrounded by rumors. It was said that a courier for Lavrentiy Beria carrying instructions for the Georgian leadership in the event of a coup was on board, or that several underground millionaires carrying a large sum of cash were flying on this flight.^[3]