1995 An-70 air disaster

On February 10, 1995, at 16:09 CET, the first prototype of the Ukrainian Antonov An-70 transport aircraft crashed during a test flight in Kyiv Oblast. The plane belonging to Antonov company collided with an escorting An-72 plane and fell into a forested area. None of the seven crew members survived. The damaged An-72 managed to land safely in Gostomel Airport where both planes were based.

The cause of the disaster was speculated to be linked to the bitter competition that the new model was about to enter in the world market of military transport aircraft. However, this version has never been supported officially. The hydraulic system of An-70 planes was redesigned after the accident.

The crew

The lost An-70 was piloted by the civilian Antonov testing team, including:

*Serhiy V. Maksimov, Captain, Test Pilot 1st class
*Volodymyr H. Lysenko, Second Pilot, Test Pilot 1st class
*Volodymyr F. Nepochatykh, Navigator, Test Navigator 1st class
*Pavlo Yu. Skotnykov, Flight Engineer, Test Flight Engineer 2nd class
*Andriy I. Kostrykin, Radio Operator, Test Radio Operator 2nd class
*Mykhailo M. Bereziuk, Chief Experiment Engineer 1st class
*Oleksandr V. Horeltsov, Chief Experiment Engineer 1st class

References

*ru icon Светлая память погибшим // Авиация и Время. - К. : 1995. - №1. - Стр.25. (Obituary in "Aviatsiya i Vremia" journal, including photogallery of the crew).