Kolavia Flight 348
Encyclopedia
Kolavia Flight 348 was a domestic scheduled passenger flight from Surgut International Airport, Surgut
Surgut
Surgut is a city in Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug, Russia, located on the Ob River near its junction with the Irtysh River, the largest in the autonomous okrug and the second largest in Tyumen Oblast. Population:...

, Russia, to Domodedovo International Airport
Domodedovo International Airport
Moscow Domodedovo Airport or Domodedovo International Airport is an international airport located in Domodedovsky District, Moscow Oblast, Russia, south-southeast of the centre of Moscow...

, Moscow, Russia. On 1 January 2011, the Kogalymavia Tupolev Tu-154-B2
Tupolev Tu-154
The Tupolev Tu-154 is a three-engine medium-range narrow-body airliner designed in the mid 1960s and manufactured by Tupolev. As the mainstay 'workhorse' of Soviet and Russian airlines for several decades, it serviced over a sixth of the world's landmass and carried half of all passengers flown...

 operating the flight caught fire while taxiing for take-off from Surgut. Three people were killed, and 43 were injured, four seriously. The aircraft was destroyed in the fire.

Aircraft

The aircraft involved was a Tupolev Tu-154B-2
Tupolev Tu-154
The Tupolev Tu-154 is a three-engine medium-range narrow-body airliner designed in the mid 1960s and manufactured by Tupolev. As the mainstay 'workhorse' of Soviet and Russian airlines for several decades, it serviced over a sixth of the world's landmass and carried half of all passengers flown...

, registration RA-85588, msn 83A/588. The aircraft first flew in 1983. It entered service with Aeroflot
Aeroflot
OJSC AeroflotRussian Airlines , commonly known as Aeroflot , is the flag carrier and largest airline of the Russian Federation, based on passengers carried per year...

 as CCCP-85588 and was re-registered RA-85588 in June 1993. It then served with Mavial Magadan Airlines
Mavial Magadan Airlines
Mavial Magadan Airlines was an airline based at Magadan, Russia, operating Tupolev Tu-154 and Ilyushin aircraft. As of summer 2006, it was the only airline flying between the Russian Far East and the American state of Alaska....

 between October 1994 and August 1999, when it began service with Vladivostok Air. Kogalymavia acquired the aircraft in April 2007.

Accident

Flight 348 was carrying eight crew, 116 passengers and 10 off-duty employees of Kogalymavia. As the aircraft was taxiing for take-off from Surgut International Airport, a fire developed in one of the engines and an emergency evacuation was ordered. It was initially reported that the aircraft had made an emergency landing following an engine flame-out on take-off. The accident occurred at 13:12 local time
UTC+5
UTC+05:00 is an identifier for a time offset from UTC of +05:00. This time is used in:-Central Asia:* Kazakhstan** western part - Aktobe Province, Atyrau Province, Mangystau Province, West Kazakhstan Province* Tajikistan* Uzbekistan* Turkmenistan...

 (08:12 UTC
Coordinated Universal Time
Coordinated Universal Time is the primary time standard by which the world regulates clocks and time. It is one of several closely related successors to Greenwich Mean Time. Computer servers, online services and other entities that rely on having a universally accepted time use UTC for that purpose...

). The METAR
METAR
METAR is a format for reporting weather information. A METAR weather report is predominantly used by pilots in fulfillment of a part of a pre-flight weather briefing, and by meteorologists, who use aggregated METAR information to assist in weather forecasting....

 in force at the time of the accident was METAR USRR 010800Z 16002MPS 5000 BR FEW006 BKN100 M30/M33 Q1052 TEMPO 2000 BR SCT003 RMK QBB200 QFE784 07////45. Three people were killed, and 43 people were injured, from smoke inhalation or burns. The aircraft was operating a domestic scheduled flight from Surgut to Moscow. The aircraft was burnt out by the fire, which was extinguished by 13:45 local time. Members of the 1990s Russian pop group Na Na were onboard the plane at the time. A statement by the Russia's Ministry of Health and Social Development
Ministry of Health and Social Development
The Ministry of Health and Social Development of the Russian Federation is an agency of the government of Russia, headquartered in Moscow. As of 2010 Tatyana Golikova is the minister.-External links:* *...

 gave figures of 117 passengers and 18 crew.

Aftermath

Following the accident, Russia's Federal Transport Oversight Agency advised airlines that they should stop using the Tu-154B until the accident had been investigated. This would affect 14 aircraft, all other Tu-154s in service are Tu-154Ms. Kogalymavia pledged to pay compensation of руб 20,000
Russian ruble
The ruble or rouble is the currency of the Russian Federation and the two partially recognized republics of Abkhazia and South Ossetia. Formerly, the ruble was also the currency of the Russian Empire and the Soviet Union prior to their breakups. Belarus and Transnistria also use currencies with...

 to those passengers involved in the accident. The Russian insurance company Sogaz stated that those injured in the accident would receive between руб 20,000 and руб 2,000,000 compensation. The families of those killed would receive руб 2,000,000 compensation. Authorities in the Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug — Yugra had allocated руб 10,000,000 to assist the families of those injured in the accident. It was reported on 6 January that all three bodies had been recovered from the wreckage.

Investigation

Russia's Interstate Aviation Committee (MAK) opened an investigation into the accident. A separate criminal investigation was opened to investigate allegations of breaching transport and fire safety rules. The Flight Data Recorder
Flight data recorder
A flight data recorder is an electronic device employed to record any instructions sent to any electronic systems on an aircraft. It is a device used to record specific aircraft performance parameters...

 and Cockpit Voice Recorder
Cockpit voice recorder
A cockpit voice recorder , often referred to as a "black box", is a flight recorder used to record the audio environment in the flight deck of an aircraft for the purpose of investigation of accidents and incidents...

 were recovered from the wreckage of the aircraft. Russia's Ministry of Emergency Situations stated that the initial investigations pointed towards an electrical short circuit being the cause of the fire, which started in the central area of the fuselage, ahead of the rear-mounted engines. The fire started between frames 65 and 68. In a statement issued on 4 January, the MAK ruled out the engines or auxiliary power unit
Auxiliary power unit
An auxiliary power unit is a device on a vehicle that provides energy for functions other than propulsion. They are commonly found on large aircraft, as well as some large land vehicles.-Function:...

 as the cause of the fire.

On the 28th September 2011 the MAK released their final report in Russian stating that the probable cause of the crash was "The outbreak of a fire in the right generator panel located between frames 62 and 64 in the cabin The cause of the fire was an electrical arc produced by electrical currents exceeding 10 to 20 times the nominal loads when two generators not synchronised with each other were brought online but got connected together instead of being connected to parallel busses.

External links

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