The 1942 Aeroflot Li-2 Krasnoyarsk crash was an aviation accident that occurred on November 17, 1942, at Krasnoyarsk Airport. The Li-2, operating on the ALSIB route (also known as the Krasnoyarsk Air Route or KVT) as part of the fifth ferry regiment, was tasked with transporting a group of military pilots to receive new aircraft. However, immediately after takeoff, the aircraft crashed on the airfield grounds, killing all thirty people on board (other sources report twenty fatalities based on the number of identified names[1]). At the time, this was the second-largest aviation disaster on the territory of the USSR (after the ANT-20bis crash earlier that year, with 36 fatalities[2]).
Aircraft
The Li-2 (military version PS-84) with serial number 1841703 and tail number СССР-Л3965 (CCCP-L3965) was manufactured in 1941. At the time of the accident, it was operated by the 5th Ferry Regiment of the Krasnoyarsk Air Route.[3]
Flight engineer – Junior Military Technician Dubovitsky Nikolai Alexandrovich;[1]
Radio operator-gunner – Prokhatinov Georgy Petrovich.[1]
Crash
The aircraft operated on the ALSIB route (Alaska-Siberia, Krasnoyarsk Air Route), where pilots ferried aircraft from the U.S. to the USSR, acquired through Lend-Lease. On November 16, the first group of American-made aircraft arrived at Krasnoyarsk Airport from Alaska. The next day, November 17, Li-2 L3965 was scheduled to fly from Krasnoyarsk to Kirensk with four crew members and twenty-six passengers, all of whom were flight crews. There are reports that Kirensk was an intermediate stop en route to the American Ladd Army Airfield (Fairbanks, Alaska),[3] but the 5th Regiment only ferried aircraft on the Kirensk-Krasnoyarsk segment[4][5]
We gathered at the airfield in a large group. It was a wonderful sunny clear day. There were two aircraft at the airfield – one Li-2, which was supposed to carry fighter squadron pilots to Kirensk for basing, and the second aircraft was a new American Douglas C-47, intended to take my squadron back to Yakutsk. The Li-2 was the first to load people and start its engine. Since it was early morning, there were no flights or other aircraft at the airfield, except for our two. The Li-2 took off directly from the parking spot, turning its nose towards the center of the field. After lifting off, the aircraft gained altitude, made a 180-degree turn, and set a course to the east. Approaching our parking spot, that is, the place from where it had just taken off, the plane tilted to the right. The pilots corrected the right tilt, but it suddenly tilted sharply to the left, dropped its nose, and from a height of about two hundred meters, vertically crashed into the ground, almost exactly where it had just taken off.
It was thirty to forty meters from our parking spot. The aircraft immediately burst into flames, as it had a full fuel load – three thousand one hundred liters of gasoline. It burned so fiercely that it was hot even standing next to our aircraft.
Thus, the joy of the first delivery of aircraft to Krasnoyarsk was darkened by this terrible event. For inexplicable reasons, the combat pilot, Li-2 commander Barkov, perished, taking almost thirty people with him. Mazuruk's deputy Fokin remained to investigate the crash, while I immediately flew to Yakutsk with my squadron on the C-47.
All the victims (passengers and crew) were buried in Krasnoyarsk at the Troitskoye Cemetery [ru]. A monument was later erected on the mass grave.[6]
Causes
The likely causes of the crash were determined to be icing and exceeding the maximum takeoff weight.[3]
