The pilots who died in the crash of the L-410 aircraft in Tatarstan had vast experience – each pilot had more than 10 thousand flight hours. This was announced by the head of the Menzelinsky branch of the Central Aero Club of the Voluntary Society for Assistance to the Army, Aviation and Navy of Russia (DOSAAF RF) Ravil Nurmekhametov on Sunday, October 10.
In turn, the head of the Menzelinsky municipal district, Aydar Salakhov, denied information that the L-410 was overloaded. He stated that the crashed plane was manned normally, which implies the presence of 20 people and two crew members on board. Salakhov voiced the assumption that a bird could get into the engine, which he said during an interview with RT.
He also added that the plane had passed all the necessary pre-flight examinations, and recently it was also serviced. The crashed aircraft has been in operation since 1987, since 2014 it belonged to DOSAAF. Moreover, this aircraft actually had a small flight time, despite its age.
On the morning of October 10, a light-engine aircraft L-410 crashed 6 km from the city of Menzelinsk immediately after takeoff. The plane belonged to the Menzelinsky flying club, there were 22 people in it – paratroopers and two crew members, 16 people were killed. A criminal case was initiated under Part 3 of Art. 263 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (“Violation of the rules for the safety of traffic and the operation of air transport, resulting in the death of two or more persons by negligence”).
The REN TV channel has published a list of the victims of the crash. According to preliminary data, the cause of the crash was a technical malfunction. The crash case was transferred to the central office of the Investigative Committee of Russia (RF IC).
On the same day, one of the survivors of the crash, Alexander Eremin, told what happened on board the plane after takeoff. According to him, the alarm began at the moment when the aircraft gained an altitude of about 100 m.
Let L-410 Turbolet is a light twin-engine aircraft for local airlines. Developed in the 1960s in Czechoslovakia. Designed for operation on unprepared unpaved, grassy, snowy areas, as well as on airfields with short strips. It was released in April 1987 and was operated by the USSR Air Force until DOSAAF.