Gazpromavia AN74 near North Pole on Apr 4th 2015, hard landing

Last Update: March 8, 2020 / 14:56:00 GMT/Zulu time

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Incident Facts

Date of incident
Apr 4, 2015

Classification
Accident

Cause
Hard landing

Airline
Gazpromavia

Departure
Murmansk, Russia

Destination
Barneo Ice Base

Aircraft Registration
RA-74056

A Gazpromavia Antonov AN-74-200 on behalf of Polar Expedition, registration RA-74056 performing flight a flight from Murmansk (Russia) to Barneo Ice Base (North Pole), made a hard landing at Barneo Ice Base (89 degrees latitude) causing substantial structural damage to the main gear. The aircraft came to a stop and settled on its tail due to the gear damage. The occupants disembarked safely via ladders.

Occupants reported the visibility was poor when the aircraft had to land at Barneo.

A cargo aircraft was dispatched to Barneo to take needed spare parts and engineers to Barneo to repair the AN-74.

Barneo Ice Base is established at about 89 degrees of Latitude every year with an ice runway capable of accepting Antonov AN-74 aircraft and helicopters for taking tourists to the North Pole. This year the base was finished early April, the first flight of the season carrying supplies to the camp landed on Apr 4th. The second flight landing at the camp was the accident flight.

According to court documents of 2016 brought to the attention of The Aviation Herald on Mar 8th 2020 attempts to repair the structural damage of the landing gear were underway on Apr 22nd 2015 when winds in excess of 30 m/s (in excess of 58 knots) caused the aircraft to tip onto its nose destroying the nose gear in addition to the right main gear collapse received on Apr 4th 2015 during the hard landing. The aircraft rolled onto its right side and received additional damage beyond repair. Repair attempts were aborted. On Apr 24th 2015 the aircraft owner Shar Inc Ltd filed an insurance claim (which was disputed by the insurer leading to these court documents, the insurance claim was upheld by the courts in the end). The aircraft owner acquired a replacement aircraft on Jul 7th 2015. The accident aircraft drifted with the ice floe to the west, when in the night between Jul 26th 2015 and Jul 27th 2015 the floe cracked and the accident aircraft sank into the waters of the Arctic Sea.
Incident Facts

Date of incident
Apr 4, 2015

Classification
Accident

Cause
Hard landing

Airline
Gazpromavia

Departure
Murmansk, Russia

Destination
Barneo Ice Base

Aircraft Registration
RA-74056

This article is published under license from Avherald.com. © of text by Avherald.com.
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