Ural Airlines Flight 178 was a scheduled passenger flight from Moscow–Zhukovsky to Simferopol, Crimea. On 15 August 2019, an Airbus A321 operating 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) past the airport. 74 people sustained injuries, all minor.
Accident
The aircraft suffered a bird strike shortly after takeoff from Zhukovsky International Airport, Moscow, Russia, bound for Simferopol International Airport, Simferopol, Crimea. A passenger recorded the plane's descent into a cornfield after a flock of gulls struck both CFM56-5 engines. The first birdstrike caused a complete loss of power in the left engine. A second birdstrike led to the right engine producing insufficient thrust to maintain flight.
The pilots Damir Yusupov and Georgy Murzin decided to turn off both engines and opted to make an emergency landing in a cornfield near the airport runway. The aircraft made a hard landing in the cornfield 2.8 nautical miles (5.2 km) from Zhukovsky International Airport. The pilot chose not to lower the landing gear in order to skid more effectively over the corn.
Everyone on board the flight survived. There has been controversy about the number of injuries as the criteria for counting a person as “injured” are not overly strict. According to some reports fifty-five people received medical attention at the scene. Twenty-nine people were taken to hospital, of whom 23 were injured. Six people were admitted as in-patients. Finally the number of injuries was fixed at 74, none of whom were severely injured.
Aircraft
The aircraft was an Airbus A321-211, registered in Bermuda as VQ-BOZ, msn 2117. It was built in 2003 and delivered to Cyprus Turkish Airlines as TC-KTD when MyTravel Airways did not accept it. 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 also being re-registered. The aircraft was damaged beyond repair in the accident.
Bird Proliferation Near Airport
The proliferation of birds near Zhukovsky airport is attributed to illegal waste dumps. The deployed countermeasure systems are overwhelmed and insufficient. As far back as 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 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.
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.
A Zhukovsky traffic controller declared, “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.”
Investigation
The Interstate Aviation Committee (Russian: Межгосударственный авиационный комитет, МАК) opened an investigation into the accident. The investigation is being assisted by Rosaviatsa, the British Air Accidents Investigation Board 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 the data from them was downloaded.
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." The airline praised the professionalism of the pilots.
The pilot in command, Damir Yusupov, and the first officer, Georgy Murzin, were awarded the honorary title of Hero of the Russian Federation; the other crew members were decorated with the Order of Courage.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ural_Airlines_Flight_178
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