S7 Airlines Flight 778 was a scheduled domestic passenger flight from Moscow to Irkutsk, Russia. On 9 July 2006, at 06:44 local time (8 July, 22:44 UTC), the Airbus A310 aircraft operating the route overran the runway during its landing in Irkutsk. The aircraft failed to stop and crashed through the airport's concrete perimeter fence, struck rows of private garages and burst into flames, killing 125 people.
With 125 deaths, the crash remains as S7 Airlines' deadliest aviation disaster. The crash was also the second Russian air disaster in two months, after Armavia Flight 967.
The final report of the Interstate Aviation Committee (MAK) investigation concluded that the cause of the crash was attributed to pilot error. While the captain was reducing the thrust reverser of the right engine, he unintentionally moved the left engine's throttle lever forward, causing the left engine to produce significant thrust. His co-pilot failed to monitor the engine parameters and as a result the crew were unable to realize the source of the problem. The crew failed to resolve the issue and the aircraft eventually overran the runway and crashed.
Background
Aircraft
The aircraft involved, manufactured in 1987, was a 19-year-old Airbus A310-324 registered F-OGYP.
Passengers and crew
There were 195 passengers and 8 crew members aboard (2 pilots and 6 flight attendants), totaling 203 people. The ITAR-Tass news agency in Russia reported that many children were among the passengers who were flying to a holiday on Lake Baikal, near Irkutsk, about 4,200 kilometres (2,600 mi; 2,300 nmi) east of Moscow. A total of 14 children, up to age 12, were on board. Besides Russian citizens, there were 14 other non-Russians on board, 3 each from Germany, China, and Belarus, 2 each from Moldova and Poland and 1 from Azerbaijan.
Among the passengers were Maria Rasputina, the daughter of Russian writer Valentin Rasputin and Sergei Koryakov, the head of Federal Security Service (FSB) of Irkutsk region.
The captain was 45-year-old Sergey Gennadievich Shibanov, who had been working for the airline since June 2005. He had 10,611 flight hours, including 1,056 hours on the Airbus A310. He graduated from Ulyanovsk Institute of Civil Aviation in 1991 and obtained his civil aviation pilot license in 1993. He was authorized to carry out international flights in 1997 and had been flying the A310 since May 2005.
The first officer was 48-year-old Vladimir Grigoryevich Chernykh, who had 9,771 flight hours, with 158 of them on the Airbus A310. He graduated from Kirovograd Civil Aviation Flight Academy in 1983 and obtained his civil aviation license in 1996. He had undergone a conversion training in April 2006 and was subsequently appointed as a co-pilot of the Airbus A310 in May.
Flight
S7 Airlines Flight 778 was a flight from Moscow's Domodedovo International Airport to Irkutsk, a major Siberian city in Irkutsk Oblast. Irkutsk International Airport is one of the airports that serves the region near Lake Baikal, which is also a major tourist attraction in the country. The flight was one of the most popular flights in Russia. As it was July, the summer holiday was in effect and the flight was packed with tourists who were going to travel to Lake Baikal.
On 9 July 2006, Flight 778 was scheduled to take off from Domodedovo International Airport at 20:15 Moscow Time (UTC 17:15). On board were 195 passengers and 8 crew members; 2 cockpit crew and 6 flight attendants. The flight was commanded by Captain Shibanov and his co-pilot was First Officer Chernykh. The aircraft took off at 20:17 local time and the course to Irkutsk was set. Due to the possibility of foggy condition in Irkutsk, the nearby Bratsk Airport was listed as the alternate airport for Flight 778. The estimated time of arrival in Irkutsk was at 06:44 Irkutsk Time (UTC 22:44).
At 06:16 Irkutsk Time, the crew reached the starting point for their descent to Irkutsk. They contacted the on-duty controller and obtained clearance to descend to 5,700 meters. During the descent, the crew elected to turn on the engines' anti-icing system. The aircraft descended with an average vertical speed of 12 m/s. Flight 778 was eventually handed over to Irkutsk Approach and was cleared to descent to 2,100 meters. As it was descending, the crew decided to turn on the wings' anti-icing for at least 3 minutes. The crew received the automatic terminal information service (ATIS) for the weather in Irkutsk. The report stated that the visibility was 3,500 meters, surface wind at 4 m/s, increase in cloud base height from 170 meters to 190 meters, light torrential rain and cumulonimbus-covered sky. After receiving the ATIS information, they requested the approach clearance to Irkutsk.
The crew finished the final leg of the approach and requested further permission to continue their approach. They eventually established the glidepath and then carried out the landing checklist. The aircraft was then configured for landing. The crew asked permission to land and the controller granted their request. The autopilot and the autothrottle were disengaged. When the aircraft got out of clouds, the pilots realized that it had deviated a bit to the right of the runway. To correct this, they made a small elevator deflection, which momentarily increased the aircraft's vertical speed, causing the "sink rate" warning to briefly sound.
At 06:43 Irkutsk Time, Flight 778 landed at Irkutsk's Runway 30 with an airspeed of 132 knots.
Accident
Immediately after the touch down, Captain Shibanov armed the spoilers and engaged the aircraft's autobrake to low mode. The reverse throttle lever of the right engine was then pulled to the maximum level to slow down the aircraft. The reverse lever of the left engine, however, was left untouched. Captain Shibanov then pushed the right engine reverse thrust to decrease the rate of deceleration. During the landing roll, the take-off warning suddenly alerted the crew on the aircraft's configuration. As the take-off alert appeared during Flight 778's landing roll, the crew shrugged it off, thinking that it was an error on the warning system. First Officer Chernykh then tried multiple times to erase the warning from the aircraft's cockpit monitor (ECAM). He then reported that Flight 778 had successfully landed on the runway. The controller gave landing confirmation to the crew and instructed them to exit the runway to the left along taxiway 6.
After completing the required tasks for landing, the crew expected the aircraft to slow down. However, it did not and instead it began to pick up speed again. The aircraft had taken up a large portion of the runway with only 800 meters remaining of the runway's asphalt. Captain Shibanov noticed this and asked First Officer Chernykh about what was happening on their aircraft. First Officer Chernykh answered that the RPM was increasing. Captain Shibanov then ordered him to deploy the right engine's thrust reverser again. Subsequently, the right engine thrust reverser was put at its maximum level. Simultaneously, Captain Shibanov tried to slow the aircraft down by applying brakes on full-force.
The crew successfully decreased the aircraft's speed, however the aircraft did not stop. They began to run out of runway as they became closer to the end. Due to their significantly high speed, the aircraft flight system disengaged the spoilers and the autobrakes.
During the commotion, one of the airport's fire trucks had noticed the aircraft's abnormal movement, in which it rolled out in high velocity. The chief of the fire truck then decided to follow Flight 778 and notified the observer of the airport's fire brigade about his intention. Using binoculars, the observer also decided to follow the aircraft's movement. The on-duty air traffic controller, who was observing Flight 778 from the airport's control tower, also noticed that the aircraft was not slowing down.
In the cockpit, the flight crew quickly became confused as to the nature and extent of the situation. The aircraft began to swerve to the left. To counter it, the crew stepped on the rudder pedal and the aircraft started to drift to the right. The crew then tried to correct it again by fully pressing the left rudder pedal but the aircraft continued to drift towards the right. The aircraft then went off the runway at a speed of about 180 kilometres per hour (97 kn; 110 mph) and travelled across the airport's grassy area. In desperation, Captain Shibanov ordered the engines to be shut down.
Despite their efforts, the aircraft did not stop. The left engine then clipped an antenna of the airport's localizer beacon and also the fences surrounding it. It then travelled across a road before it finally smashed onto the airport's concrete perimeter fence at a speed of 97 knots (180 kph). The impact caused the nose gear to collapse. The engines detached from the pylons and the aircraft's left wing was sheared off. The fuel on the wings then ignited, creating massive burst of flames. The cabin lights immediately went out. The aircraft then struck rows of private garages and finally stopped. The crash immediately killed one woman passenger, while the rest managed to survive with varying degrees of injuries.
Rescue operation
As the aircraft struck the perimeter fence and burst into flames, the observer gave an alarm to the airport's firefighting services on the crash. The two controllers inside the ATC tower saw the explosions from the crash and alerted the airport's emergency services. An emergency alarm was transmitted throughout every departments in the airport. Due to the crash, the airport was closed from further operation.
Meanwhile, in the aircraft, thick smoke entered the cabin. The leaking fuel spilled under the fuselage and under the cabin floor, enabling the fire to spread rapidly throughout the entire aircraft. By the forward entry doors, the floor had been ripped off by the impact and both entry doors had been destroyed. The flight attendant stationed on the right was unconscious, while the flight attendant stationed on the left entry door was dangling by her seatbelt. There was a growing fire around her seat, preventing her from reaching the passengers. Underneath her, another fire could be seen. She unfastened her seatbelt and fell from a height of 3 meters. She suffered burns due to the fire, but survived as she immediately escaped the burning aircraft.
In the rest of the cabin, panic quickly set in. Passengers began to scream as they scrambled towards the nearest exits. Passengers in the business class and the economy class in the forward section managed to escape through gaps and holes on the right sidewall that had been formed by the crash. On the central portion of the aircraft, two flight attendants who were stationed at the area tried to open the overwing emergency doors. The emergency door on the left could not be opened due to the raging fire under the left wing. The flight attendant on that station later died due to acute carbon monoxide poisoning. The door on the right was able to be opened and passengers immediately poured onto the right wing. The survivors then jumped onto the nearby roofs.
Two other flight attendants were stationed at the rear. Following the impact, numerous metal containers of airline meal poured onto the flight attendant who was stationed at the right rear door, burying her. She later freed herself from the pile and assisted the evacuation. The right rear door could not be opened due to the massive pile of metal containers. The left rear door was opened and the crew tried to inflate the chute. The chute could not inflate since it had been sliced by wreckage on the ground. Passengers had to jump from a high height.
The chaotic situation combined with the dark condition that had been caused by the smoke and the intense fire inside the cabin hindered the evacuation process. Several passengers had to crawl due to the smoke. The first firefighting vehicle, the one that had followed Flight 778 prior to the crash, arrived at the site 15 seconds after the start of the fire. Approximately 65 seconds after the aircraft had caught fire, a total of 67 passengers had been evacuated by the cabin crew. The other trucks arrived within 2–3 minutes. Deployed personnel then tried to pry open the rear right door, which could not be opened earlier due to the metal containers. They managed to rescue 11 other passengers until the flames became too dangerous. The area around the wreckage was later cordoned off by authorities.
Television pictures showed smoking ruins of the Airbus with only the tail section intact. It took two hours for local firefighters from five different fire stations to extinguish the blaze.