Today (13NOV20), a Volga Dnepr Airlines AN-124-100 freighter aircraft skidded off the runway of Siberian Novosibirsk Tolmachevo International Airport, following an uncontained engine failure. 14 people were on board, but no injuries reported.
The emergency landing of flight VDA4066 at Novosibirsk airport could have ended badly. During the freighter’s ascent shortly after midday local time, an engine failure occurred at a height of
around 550 meters, seen on videos showing smoke trailing from the defunct turbine.
The AN-124-100, registered as RA-82042, was on its way from Seoul, South Korea, to Vienna, Austria, after having made a technical stop at Novosibirsk, Russia. Besides the cockpit staff and the
accompanying technical crew members, 83.5 tons of cargo, mainly automotive parts, were on board the charter flight.
Emergency U-turn
Following the engine explosion, the pilots immediately decided to return to the airport of departure, but upon landing the aircraft overran runway 25 and broke its nose gear. Local spectators
report that engine shrapnel crashed through the roof of a warehouse located in the vicinity of the airport, luckily without injuring anybody. The missing cowling belonging to engine #2 was found
in a field.
After the emergency landing, all crew members were examined by medical personnel and most importantly none were injured. “At the moment, we are cooperating with the aviation authorities and
Novosibirsk airport with respect to this event and will thoroughly analyze the situation accordingly,” states Igor Aksenov, General Director of Volga-Dnepr Airlines, in a press release. At
this point in time it is not known if the aircraft has to be written off or if the damages allow the AN-124 freighter to be repaired.
Novosibirsk Tomachevo International has not yet reported the incident on their site.
Heiner Siegmund
We always welcome your comments to our articles. However, we can only publish them when the sender name is authentic.