Aeroflot Flight 105

The aircraft was operating regular passenger flight 105 from Khabarovsk to Magadan with an intermediate stop in Okhotsk. The flight proceeded without deviations until Okhotsk. In Okhotsk, the crew received a weather forecast for Magadan: continuous with breaks (7-10 tenths) stratocumulus and nimbostratus cloud cover with a base of 300–600 meters, calm wind, rain, and visibility ranging from 4 to 10 kilometers. At 01:16,^{[* 1]} with 20 passengers and 4 crew members on board, flight 105 departed from Okhotsk and after climbing, leveled off at an altitude of 2,400 meters.^[3]

At 02:20, the crew reported to the dispatcher about passing over Balagannoye and received clearance to enter the Magadan Airport zone. At 02:30, the crew established communication with the airport's dispatch service and reported flying in clouds at an altitude of 2,400 meters, to which the flight director granted permission to descend first to 1,800 meters and then to 1,500 meters. At 02:48, the crew reported passing over the beacon, and the flight director granted permission to descend and break through the clouds according to the established procedure. Later, during questioning, the flight director stated that he provided the crew with landing conditions and weather information, including the cloud base at 600 meters. However, according to the recorded communications between the dispatcher and the crew, this was not done. The crew no longer responded to calls or made contact.^[3]

Over Magadan, the sky was indeed covered with clouds with a base of 300 meters, it was raining, and visibility was 6 kilometers. When the commander received permission to break through the clouds, he descended to 600 meters according to the procedure. However, during the approach, the aircraft for an unknown reason deviated from the assigned course and was now heading towards the mountains. Flying through the clouds at a height of only 300 meters, the commander saw a bay through the breaks in the clouds. Believing it to be Gertner Bay, the crew continued descending and entered the clouds. In reality, the bay they saw was Vesyolaya, which is several kilometers south. At 02:50 (11:50 local time), the Il-12 flying in the clouds at an altitude of 430 meters clipped the tops of several trees, and then, 16.5 kilometers south of the airport, crashed into the Marchekan Hill on the Staritsky Peninsula. Skidding along the slope for 130 meters through trees and rocks and climbing to an altitude of 500 meters above sea level, the airliner was completely destroyed, and all 24 people on board perished.^[3]

This was the deadliest aviation disaster in Magadan Oblast. A symbolic wooden cross has since been erected at the crash site.

According to the investigative commission, the primary cause of the accident was a gross violation by air traffic controllers for not adhering to the weather minimums of Magadan-13 Airport, according to which the minimum cloud base was 600 meters, and visibility was 4 kilometers. The actual cloud base was 300 meters, which is twice below the weather minimum, yet the airport was not closed for aircraft reception. Contributing to the disaster was also the fact that the commander began the approach under weather conditions below the minimum and deviated from the established procedure during the cloud break.^[3]