On the twenty fourth of July 2025, Angara Airways flight 2311 from Blagoveshchensk to Tynda disappeared from radar throughout a go-around at Tynda Airport. The wreckage was found 15 kilometres from the airport. There have been no survivors.
The tragic flight was a multi-stop service connecting Russia’s far japanese communities. The primary flight departed Khabarovsk on time at 08:20 for the flight to Ignatyevo Airport in Blagoveshchensk. There, the plane refuelled and boarded 42 passengers, together with 5 youngsters. Angara flight 2311 was scheduled to depart at 09:10, however climate delays triggered the flight to depart two hours late at 11:20 native time with 42 passengers and 6 crew onboard.
The captain was a graduate of the Talgat Bigeldinov Army Institute who had beforehand labored for IrAero earlier than becoming a member of Angara Airways. The primary officer and the flight engineer joined him on the flight deck with one other three crew members within the cabin. All six crew members have been residents of Irkutsk Oblast.
The Antonov An-24V, registered in Russia as RA-47315, was manufactured by the Kyiv Aviation Plant in January 1976 and initially flew for Aeroflot. It operated for varied carriers earlier than becoming a member of Anara’s fleet in 2013.
Aviation Security Community information present the plane has beforehand been concerned in two incidents, together with windscreen cracks inflicting an in-flight depressurisation occasion in 2017.
The An-24 held a legitimate airworthiness certificates prolonged till 2036, reflecting Russia’s coverage of extending Soviet-era plane service life from 50 years to 60.
The AN-24 continued in the direction of its remaining vacation spot of Tynda, a distant railway junction city in Amur Oblast close to the Chinese language border. Tynda Sigita Airport is 16 km north of the city with a single concrete runway of two,200 metres (7,220 toes) aligned 06/24.
Shortly earlier than 13:00 native time, the plane approached Tynda Airport’s runway 06. The climate appears to have been benign, with scattered cloud at 210 metres (700 toes) and damaged cloud at 600 metres (2,000 toes), mild rain, wind at 7 km/h (below 4 knots) and visibility at or over 10 km.
It isn’t clear in the mean time why the flight crew broke off their method, selecting as a substitute to go round. There was no misery name. At 12:58 native time, the plane misplaced contact with air visitors management and disappeared from radar screens.
A Rosaviatsiya Mi-8 search helicopter situated the burning wreckage at 17:30, 4 and a half hours after contact was misplaced. The crash web site’s distant location was not accessible to the helicopters. Over 100 rescuers used chainsaws and heavy tools to achieve the wreckage, lastly arriving at 23:00, ten hours after the crash.
Investigators recovered each flight recorders from the crash web site the next day. The Interstate Aviation Committee, Russia’s aviation authority, reported that the flight knowledge recorder’s magnetic tape media was destroyed within the hearth; nonetheless, the cockpit voice recorder knowledge had been preserved.
The lack of the FDR knowledge signifies that we do not need any of the technical knowledge about engines’ energy, management floor positions or different flight parameters that may clarify the sequence of occasions resulting in an accident.
Nevertheless, investigators have already acknowledged that the plane programs don’t seem to have failed
Previous to the second of the aircraft’s collision with the earth’s floor, preliminarily, no failures of the plane’s programs have been recorded.
This suggests that investigators might be centered on crew actions and exterior components.
Nevertheless, Angara Airways appears to have had some actual points with upkeep.
Russian media reported {that a} June 2025 inspection of Angara Airways by Russia’s transport supervisory company revealed systematic violations: documentation displaying plane serviced by employees who weren’t engaged on the related days, lacking important testing tools, and personnel missing required {qualifications}. Particular violations included upkeep being carried out on two An-24RV plane with out the particular instruments required for the inspections.
Rosaviatsia, the federal aviation regulator, has now revoked Angara Airways’ upkeep certificates, that means the service can not carry out its personal plane upkeep and should depend on third-party licensed organisations. Eight of Angara’s plane have been suspended from operation, and 4 engineering and technical personnel have been suspended from upkeep duties.
Angara Airways continues to supply flights below heightened scrutiny and regulatory oversight.
The federal government’s response to the tragedy has been swift. Russian media stories that households will obtain 5.025 million rubles (63K USD, 47K GBP, 54K EUR) per sufferer from three sources: 2.025 million rubles from insurance coverage firms, 2 million rubles from Angara Airways and 1 million rubles from regional authorities help. Regional funds of 1 million rubles began arriving to households final week.
Angara Airways is protecting all transportation prices for victims’ our bodies to burial websites, whereas 5 main Russian carriers – Aeroflot, Aurora, NordWind, NordStar, and S7 – provided free flights for households travelling to memorial companies. Regional officers have been assigned to every household to deal with paperwork and funeral preparations. As well as, negotiations are being held with credit score establishments on the doable write-off of money owed belonging to the useless residents.
A spontaneous memorial appeared in Tynda.
The banner reads “Tynda 24.07.2025 we mourn” and reveals an plane on method. The images present residents bringing flowers, sweets and toys in remembrance. 5 youngsters have been killed within the crash.
The lack of the An-24 highlights Russia’s deteriorating aviation infrastructure below Western sanctions. These sanctions have eradicated entry to Boeing and Airbus components and companies, forcing airways to function ageing Soviet plane nicely past their supposed service life. Home plane meeting prices have surged 45-70% between 2022 and 2024, whereas Russia imports over $1 billion in Western aviation parts by way of third nations to take care of operations. Russian airways retired 58 passenger plane in 2024 as the results of accidents and the shortcoming to proceed to carry out upkeep.
In 2011, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev referred to as for the accelerated decommissioning of An-24s, which have been banned from scheduled flights inside Russia. Nevertheless, the ban was cancelled to mitigate the shortage of viable plane. Ninety-three An-24 plane are in service worldwide, with about 50 of them working in Russia. The TVRS-44 Ladoga, a twin-engine plane meant to succeed the An-24, is not on time and mass manufacturing is just not anticipated till 2027 on the earliest.
In 2022, the FAA within the US downgraded Russia to “Class 2” standing for non-compliance with ICAO requirements. The EU has blacklisted 22 Russian airways for severe security deficiencies.
The formal investigation continues below the Interstate Aviation Committee, with legal proceedings initiated below Article 263 of the Russian Prison Code protecting transportation security violations leading to a number of deaths. Investigators performed searches at Angara Airways’ places of work, seizing flight operations and technical documentation.
Nothing about Flight 2311 strains up neatly but: the climate was not tough, the crew by no means referred to as something incorrect and all of the plane programs appear to have been intact earlier than the affect. The one factor we all know proper now’s that the An-24 was flying below a system below pressure, with ageing airframes, questionable upkeep and no room for error.
