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Ural Airlines Flight 178 was an Ural Airlines scheduled passenger flight from Moscow–Zhukovsky to Simferopol, Crimea. On 15 August 2019, the Airbus A321 operating the flight carried 226 passengers and seven crew. The flight suffered a bird strike after taking off from Zhukovsky and crash landed in a cornfield, 5 kilometres (3.1 mi; 2.7 nmi) away from the airport. All on board survived; 74 people sustained injuries, but none were severe.

Ural Airlines Flight 178

VQ-BOZ, the aircraft involved in the accident, taken 9 days prior
Accident
Date	15 August 2019 (2019-08-15)
Summary	Crash-landed following bird strike resulting in dual engine failure
Site	Near Zhukovsky International Airport, Moscow, Russia 55°30′43″N 38°15′07″E
Aircraft
Aircraft type	Airbus A321-211
Operator	Ural Airlines
IATA flight No.	U6178
ICAO flight No.	SVR178
Call sign	SVERDLOVSK AIR 178
Registration	VQ-BOZ
Flight origin	Zhukovsky International Airport, Moscow, Russia
Destination	Simferopol International Airport, Simferopol, Crimea
Occupants	233
Passengers	226
Crew	7
Fatalities	0
Injuries	74
Survivors	233 (all)

Accident

External video
Footage shortly after takeoff
Footage during landing
Aerial footage of landing area
Footage of the landing site and plane shot by a passenger after landing

The aircraft suffered a bird strike shortly after takeoff from Zhukovsky International Airport, Moscow, Russia, bound for Simferopol International Airport, Simferopol, Crimea.[1] A passenger recorded the plane's descent into a cornfield after a flock of gulls struck both CFM56-5 engines.[2] The first bird strike caused a complete loss of power in the left engine. A second bird strike caused the right engine to produce insufficient thrust to maintain flight.[3]

The pilots opted to make an emergency landing in a cornfield beyond the end of the airport runway and decided to shut down both engines just before touchdown. The aircraft made a hard landing in the cornfield 2.8 nautical miles (5.2 km) from Zhukovsky International Airport.[3][4] The pilot chose not to lower the landing gear in order to skid more effectively over the corn.[5]

Everyone on board the flight survived.[2] There have been differing reports on the number of injuries sustained as the criteria for counting a person as "injured" are not overly strict. According to some reports, 55 people received medical attention at the scene. 29 people were taken to hospital, of whom 23 were injured. Six people were admitted as in-patients.[6][7][8] The number of injuries was finally fixed at 74, none of whom was severely injured.[9] All passengers were offered 100,000₽ (US$1,358) as accident compensation.[10]

Aircraft

The aircraft was an Airbus A321-211, registered in Bermuda as VQ-BOZ, msn 2117. It was built in 2003 for MyTravel Airways (as G-OMYA), who decided not to accept it; it was then transferred to Cyprus Turkish Airlines as TC-KTD. It then operated for AtlasGlobal as TC-ETR in 2010, and Solaris Airlines in 2011 as EI-ERU, before being delivered to Ural Airlines in 2011 as VQ-BOZ.[1][11][12]

The aircraft was damaged beyond repair in the accident[3] and the airline announced that it would be cut up in situ (on site) to be scrapped, in an operation that was scheduled to commence on 23 August 2019.[13] The accident represents the sixth hull loss of an Airbus A321.[1][14]

Crew

The pilot in command was 41-year-old Damir Yusupov [ru; pl] who graduated from the Buguruslan Flight School of Civil Aviation [ru], in Buguruslan, Russia, in 2013. He has also received a degree in Air Navigation from the Ulyanovsk Institute of Civil Aviation, in Ulyanovsk, Russia. At the time of the accident, he had over 3,000 hours of flight time.[15]

The co-pilot was 23-year-old Georgy Murzin [ru; pl] who also graduated from the Buguruslan Flight School of Civil Aviation, in 2017.[16] At the time of the accident, he had over 600 hours of flight time.[15]

There were five flight attendants on board.[3]

Proliferation of birds near airport

The proliferation of birds near Moscow–Zhukovsky is attributed to illegal waste dumps.[17] The deployed bird control measures are overwhelmed and insufficient.[18] In 2012, the management of one of the waste sites had been sued in Zhukovsky district court, alleging that "the waste sorting facilities attract massive numbers of birds due to significant content of edible refuse, and with the site located at the distance of 2 km (1.2 mi; 1.1 nmi) from the airport runway this could lead to collisions between birds and aircraft, threatening human life and limb". The court did not find sufficient grounds to rule in favor of plaintiffs and their demands to enjoin the defendants from sorting or storing household waste at the specified site.[19]

As of 2019, this site is no longer sorting or storing household waste, instead compacting it and transferring it further for disposal; the operations, however, are conducted outdoors.[17]

A Zhukovsky air traffic controller declared:[18]

We issue warnings to every departing aircraft. The birds come to sit on the runway ⁠— ⁠there's the river and the dump nearby, so they're here constantly.

In September 2019, Rosaviatsiya proposed to work with law enforcement authorities to check the legality of waste dumps near airports, and will also examine the frequency of scheduled and unscheduled inspections of airports for the presence of birds.[20]

Reactions

Shortly after the accident, Ural Airlines released a statement on Twitter stating: "Flight U6178 Zhukovsky-Simferopol on departure from Zhukovsky sustained multiple bird strikes to the aircraft engines. The aircraft made an emergency landing. There were no injuries to the passengers and crew."[21] The airline praised the professionalism of the pilots.[8]

On social media, immediate comparisons[22] were made between the accident and the "Miracle on the Hudson" incident involving US Airways Flight 1549.

The pilot in command, Damir Yusupov, and first officer, Georgy Murzin, were awarded the honorary title of Hero of the Russian Federation; the other five crew members were decorated with the Order of Courage.[23]

While being praised in Russia, the crew of the aircraft was entered into the blacklist of Ukrainian NGO Myrotvorets ("Peacemaker"), which accused them of "knowingly and on multiple occasions making illegal crossings of the state border of Ukraine".[24]

Author of the first Russian disaster movie Air Crew, Alexander Mitta, announced plans to make a film based on the events of Flight 178.[25]

Investigation

The Interstate Aviation Committee (Russian: Межгосударственный авиационный комитет, МАК) opened an investigation into the accident. The investigation is being assisted by Rosaviatsiya, the British Air Accidents Investigation Branch, and the French Bureau d'Enquêtes et d'Analyses pour la Sécurité de l'Aviation Civile. The cockpit voice recorder and flight data recorder were both successfully recovered and their data downloaded.[3]

Instead of being published, the report was leaked in August 2022. The report blames the pilots of several mistakes instead of heroism. An aviation journalist explained one of the main contributing factors was the russian attitude of avoiding non-standard decisions such as holding on the runway and delaying the takeoff-run or even abort takeoff. Both the crew had seen the birds and were aware of them before takeoff begun, both were swearing because of the birds. As for the continuing events, the crew was described as disorganized as they didn't retract the undercarriage nor disabled the alarm gone off after autopilot disengagement. An emergency landing was not talked about in the cockpit, as a consequence the engines were not shut down on touchdown. Retracting the undercarriage in the last phase of the flight was interpreted as a measure to gain speed by the investigation, not as a preparation for an emergency landing as claimed by the pilots.[26]

Aftermath

After the accident, the aircraft was written off[3] and the airline announced that it would be demolished, recycled and scrapped, in an operation that was scheduled to commence on 23 August 2019.[13]

See also

• US Airways Flight 1549 – 2009 accident after both engines failed following a bird strike shortly after takeoff; ditched in the Hudson River, New York
• Ethiopian Airlines Flight 604 – 1988 accident after both engines failed following a bird strike shortly after takeoff
• Eastern Air Lines Flight 375 – 1960 accident after the aircraft suffered a bird strike shortly after takeoff
• 1973 DeKalb–Peachtree Airport Learjet crash

References

External links

• Interstate Aviation Committee
  • Airbus A-321-211 VQ-BOZ 15.08.2019
  • Airbus A-321-211 VQ-BOZ 15.08.2019 (in Russian) – the Russian version is the report of record.

На других языках

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[de] Ural-Airlines-Flug 178

Am 15. August 2019 traf ein Airbus A321-200 (Luftfahrzeugkennzeichen VQ-BOZ) auf dem Flug 178 der Ural Airlines vom Flughafen Moskau-Schukowski nach Simferopol auf der Halbinsel Krim mit 226 Passagieren und sieben Besatzungsmitgliedern an Bord kurz nach dem Start einen Schwarm Möwen.[1][2] Beide Triebwerke lieferten nach diesem Vogelschlag nur einen Teil des Schubs und es kam zu einer Landung mit eingefahrenem Fahrwerk in einem Maisfeld etwa fünf Kilometer von der Start- und Landebahn entfernt.

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- [en] Ural Airlines Flight 178

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[fr] Vol Ural Airlines 178

Le 15 août 2019, l'Airbus A321 qui assure le vol Ural Airlines 178 de la compagnie russe Ural Airlines entre l’aéroport Joukovski de Moscou et l'aéroport international de Simferopol, en Crimée est victime d'une collision aviaire avec une volée de mouettes au moment du décollage, ce qui provoque de graves dysfonctionnements des moteurs. Les pilotes décident de procéder à un atterrissage d'urgence, train rentré, dans un champ de maïs situé à quelques kilomètres de la piste[1].

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[it] Volo Ural Airlines 178

Il volo Ural Airlines 178 era un volo di linea passeggeri da Mosca, in Russia, a Simferopoli, in Crimea. Il 15 agosto 2019, un Airbus A321 in servizio su tale rotta subì un impatto con volatili appena dopo il decollo dalla capitale russa e atterrò in un campo di grano a pochi chilometri dall'aeroporto. 29 persone rimasero ferite, ma non ci furono vittime.[1]

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[ru] Аварийная посадка A321 под Жуковским

Аварийная посадка A321 под Жуковским — авиационная авария, произошедшая рано утром в четверг 15 августа 2019 года. Авиалайнер Airbus A321-211 авиакомпании «Уральские авиалинии» выполнял плановый рейс U6 178 по маршруту Москва—Симферополь, но вскоре после вылета из аэропорта Жуковский столкнулся со стаей чаек, и у него отказали оба двигателя. Экипаж сумел благополучно посадить самолёт на кукурузное поле. Все находившиеся на его борту 233 человека (226 пассажиров и 7 членов экипажа) выжили, 74 человека получили травмы различной степени тяжести[2].

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