Aeroflot Flight 205

The aircraft was operating flight 205 from Moscow to Baku with intermediate stops in Voronezh and Stalingrad. At 23:30 on January 17, it departed from Vnukovo Airport (Moscow) and landed at Voronezh Airport at 01:00 on January 18. After a 45-minute layover, the aircraft, carrying 5 crew members and 20 passengers, departed for Stalingrad. During the flight, at 02:07, the crew received a weather forecast for Gumrak Airport indicating continuous stratiform rain clouds and fracto-rain clouds with a lower boundary of 250 meters, snow, and visibility of 2 kilometers. At 02:25, the aircraft entered the Stalingrad Air Traffic Control Center's zone, flying above the clouds. At 03:07, the aircraft reported entering the airport's airspace at an altitude of 2,400 meters between cloud layers and requested approach and landing conditions. Permission was granted to perform an approach at 1,200 meters. Gumrak Airport was equipped with a landing system (OSP) only on the eastern side with a landing course of 243°. However, a northeast wind (60°) blew on that day, making a tailwind for the 243° landing course, which made landing from the eastern side impossible. In such conditions, the crew had to follow a rectangular route and penetrate the cloud cover, descend to 150 meters, align with a course of 243°, then make the fourth turn and pass the OMP with the IMP, perform a visual approach on course 63° to runway 24 by a left-hand circuit.^[2]

When the crew reported reaching 1,200 meters, the dispatcher permitted descent to 900 meters, to which the crew responded: Seeing it visually. Soon, clearance was given for 400 meters, which the crew confirmed. When asked by the dispatcher if they had the runway threshold in sight, the response was negative. Flight 205 then reported that they were passing the OMP at 400 meters on a course of 153° and proceeding to the second turn. The crew successively reported passing the second, third, and fourth turns at 400 meters. After the report of completing the fourth turn, the flight leader inquired about the possibility of visual flight, to which an affirmative answer was given. However, contact with the aircraft was lost afterward. There was also no report on passing the OMP. At 03:33, flying on a course of 315° with a right bank of 15—20° and a pitch of 9—12°, the Il-14, traveling at approximately 300 km/h, crashed into a snow-covered field 4,025 meters from the OMP and about 5,000 meters from the runway 24 threshold. The right wing struck the ground first and broke apart upon impact, causing the aircraft to overturn and sever the tail section. The wreckage was scattered over 300—350 meters, and no fire ensued, but all 25 people on board perished.^[2]

From the outset, the crash was noted for its strange nature: performing a visual flight, the aircraft began a strong deviation to the right between the fourth turn and the OMP as if the crew were not in control. At this time, there was continuous stratiform rain cloud cover at 163 meters, mist, and visibility of up to 4 kilometers, meaning that the weather conditions given the crew's training could not have caused the crash. It was also established that 19 tickets were sold for the flight, but there was an additional stowaway passenger on board. Moreover, one of the passengers traveling from Moscow to Baku was sent a telegram to Stalingrad Airport with a suspicious text: Everyone is healthy in Moscow; I find it advisable to return by train. This raised a theory of a possible attack on the crew. However, the commander's pistol found at the crash site was discovered fully loaded. Examination of the wreckage showed that the engines were running at the time of impact and the aircraft was under control.^[2]

When the bodies of the crew members were examined, a round wound 5 centimeters deep with burn marks around the edges was found on the left thigh of the commander, Mandrykin. Initially, the forensic examination concluded that the wound resulted from electric shock, although it could not determine whether the wound was inflicted before or after death. However, a more detailed examination of the wreckage revealed five round holes, 10 and 35 millimeters in diameter, located in the skin and partition of the cockpit and the left control panel of the engine management. The commission noted that between 3 and 5 AM, in the area of Gumrak near the crash site, a military unit conducted firing exercises. Additionally, in the following three months, about ten reports were received from aircraft commanders of various planes stating that during approaches from the west side from the fourth turn to the OMP, when planes flew over the military range, tracer rounds and shell bursts were observed dangerously close to them. In April, an exhumation of the commander's body was conducted. A re-examination found small metal fragments in the left thigh in the burn area and a cylindrical metal object measuring 11×5 millimeters. Thus, the initial conclusion that the wound resulted from an electric shock was refuted.^[2]

The commission decided to conduct an examination to prove that the metallic objects found in the commander's body were a bullet fired from a firearm. Based on these findings, a petition could be filed with the Ministry of Defense of the USSR to close the military range located in the rectangular approach route area on course 243°, as regular firing drills, both day and night, were held there, creating a clear threat to the safety of aircraft flying over the range. However, the commission made no final conclusion, leaving the cause of the crash officially undetermined.^[2]