The plane crash with the highest number of victims on the ground

January 8 marked the 30th anniversary of the plane crash with the highest number of casualties on the ground in history. On that day in 1996, an An-32B belonging to the Russian airline Moscow Airways crashed into a crowd at a market in Kinshasa, the capital of Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of Congo).

The aircraft (serial number 23-01, registration RA-26222) was manufactured in February 1990 and belonged to the last series built during the Soviet era by the Kyiv Aviation Production Association (now integrated into Antonov JSC). It was piloted by a Russian crew led by Nikolai Kazarin.

At 11:40 local time, the An-32B began its takeoff run on the runway at N'Dolo Airport. According to objective monitoring data, at 39 seconds, the speed reached 194 km/h, which should have allowed the nose gear to be raised at the declared takeoff weight of 26 tons. However, this did not happen even at 42 seconds, when the speed reached 204 km/h and the aircraft should have lifted off the runway. The pilots tried to lift their aircraft into the air for another 5 seconds, but finally realizing that it was futile, they tried to abort the takeoff. They took measures for emergency braking, but it was too late. The “Thirty-Second” rolled out of the runway at breakneck speed, jumped over a concrete drainage ditch, and drove into the market area, which, in violation of all regulations, was located in line with the runway. Before coming to a stop, it raced almost a quarter of a kilometer straight through retail outlets and crowds of people. The plane caught fire. A long piece of debris from one of the stalls flew into the cockpit and killed flight engineer Andriy Belyaev. The other crew members survived and were able to leave the plane.

The aviators were threatened with lynching by an angry crowd, but the police managed to rescue them. The residents of Komsomolsk-on-Amur had every reason to be angry—the plane left behind hundreds of mangled bodies, some of which were unrecognizable. According to official data, 297 people were killed and another 253 were injured.

The investigation, which also involved specialists from the Interstate Aviation Committee in Moscow, revealed numerous violations in the work of both Moscow Airways itself and its local contractors. In particular, the airline's contract to operate in Zaire expired in December 1995. In fact, Kazarin's crew was carrying out a smuggling flight and, instead of food products, was supposed to deliver weapons and ammunition to Angola via the Zaire airport in Kahemba. In addition, the Russians neglected to check the loading and centering of their aircraft. The main cause of the tragedy was determined to be significant overloading of the aircraft, although the exact weight of the cargo could not be established. The plane was supposed to carry 2 tons, but in reality, the clever operators at N'Dolo Airport were able to load 11 tons, and the takeoff weight of the An-32 could reach 34 tons.