Ural Airlines Flight 178 was a 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.
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 involved, taken 9 days prior to the incident.
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]
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]
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
Damir Yusupov (left) and Georgy Murzin (right) at the awards ceremony in the Kremlin, 21 November 2019
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]
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]
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