2007 Mogadishu TransAVIAexport Airlines Il-76 crash

2007 TransAVIAexport Airlines Ilyushin Il-76 airplane crash

The accident aircraft in 1994
Occurrence summary
Date	March 23, 2007 (2007-03-23)
Type	Suspected shootdown
Site	Mogadishu
Passengers	4
Crew	7
Injuries	0
Fatalities	11
Survivors	0
Aircraft type	Ilyushin Il-76TD
Operator	TransAVIAexport Airlines
Tail number	EW-78849

On March 23, 2007, a TransAVIAexport Airlines Ilyushin Il-76 aircraft crashed on the outskirts of Mogadishu, Somalia, during the 2007 Battle of Mogadishu. The plane was carrying repair equipment and humanitarian aid. According to a spokesperson for the transport ministry of Belarus, the aircraft was shot down. However, the Somali government insisted that the crash was accidental. All the people on board died in the crash.

Flight overview

The aircraft involved was an Ilyushin Il-76, a large Russian-built cargo aircraft. Registered as EW-78849, the Il-76 had been on a chartered cargo flight carrying equipment to Ugandan AMISOM peacekeepers in the Somali capital of Mogadishu. All of the crew members were Belarusian.

Previous shootdown attempt

Four of the personnel on board the accident aircraft were engineers who had worked on repairing another Il-76 that had been the subject of an attempted shootdown 14 days earlier. In that incident, an Il-76 that was carrying Ugandan peacekeepers made a successful emergency landing, after having been struck by a rocket propelled grenade. Somali officials claimed both aircraft incidents occurred due to technical failures rather than armed attacks. Much of the equipment on board Il-76 EW-78849 was for repairing the aircraft damaged earlier; the rest of the cargo was humanitarian aid. The first aircraft was still crippled at the departure time of the second Il-76, EW-78849, and TransAVIAexport were considering whether to cannibalise it for re-usable parts.

There has been a report of unverified claims circulating on the Internet that this first aircraft had in fact been carrying a secret load of infantry fighting vehicles for Ugandan troops. This report also claims that the infantry fighting vehicles saved the crew.

Crash

The aircraft had just taken off from Mogadishu International Airport. According to Somali Interior Minister Mohamed Mahamud Guled, the plane took off at around five o'clock, and as soon as it reached 10,000 feet (3,000 m) altitude, the pilot reported a problem in engine number two, stating that he would turn back to the airport. He was in the process of attempting to return to the airport for an emergency landing when one wing exploded, separated from the aircraft and fell into the Indian Ocean, while the rest of the plane continued, on fire, along the beach at a low altitude before crashing.

The accident occurred in an area called Kuluweyne, with the main part of the wreckage landing near a farmer's hamlet. A Reuters reporter who visited the scene reported seeing crushed animals, four corpses still on the ground, and wreckage spread across an area the size of four football fields. Rescuers found ten of the crew members dead at the scene, and an eleventh alive and wandering around the crash site. He was transported to a hospital where he died the same day. Operations at the airport were not affected by the crash, with Somali Prime Minister Ali Gedi and his delegation departing as scheduled from the airport the next day, destined for the Arab League summit in Saudi Arabia.

Alleged shootdown

A civilian who witnessed the crash said he heard what he believed to be a surface-to-air missile being fired immediately before the accident. "I saw with my eyes when the plane, which was flying low-level, was hit by a rocket and then fell to the ground," Shabelle reporter Maryan Hashi said." There have been reports that the projectile came from a small boat, and others that it came from a nearby farmers' market. The plane appears to have been struck by the missile at an altitude of about 500 feet (150 m).

Deceased

Crew members who were killed:

• Igor Leonidovich Vashkevich – Commander of the air squadron
• Aleksandr Viktorovich Gomanykov – Co-pilot
• Gennady Aleksandrovich Trashkov – Navigator
• Ivan Ivanovich Gab – Onboard engineer
• Oleg Viktorovich Kanunnikov – Radio operator
• Aleksandr Ivanovich Zernin – Senior load attendant
• Igor Mikhailovich Gres – Load attendant
• Oleg Yevgeniushovich Bondaronok – Aircraft technician
• Mikhail Ivanovich Baglov – Aircraft engineer
• Dmitry Sergeevich Nosnikov – Aircraft technician
• Artem Borisovich Sychugov – Aircraft technician

Reactions and aftermath

The Somali authorities originally stated that the cause of the crash was unknown, and have since maintained that the crash occurred as a result of an accident, and that it had not been shot down. However, while not claiming responsibility for this specific attack, an Islamist web site published claims that the plane was indeed struck by a missile. Within 24 hours of the crash, Belarusian officials confirmed that the plane had been shot down. Somali soldiers began to guard the area against interference. TransAVIAexport suspended all flights to Somalia as a result of the incident, and Belarus advised its airlines not to enter Somalian airspace.

On April 2, 2007, funeral services were held in Belarus for the victims, with hundreds attending. Eight of the victims were buried in a single lot at Maskouskiya cemetery, the rest in Vitsebsk.

An investigation has been launched by the Belarusian transport prosecutor’s office for violations of Article 126 of the Criminal Code, which concerns international terrorism.

See also

• Korean Air Lines Flight 007
• Iran Air Flight 655

External links

• Shabelle.net image gallery of crash site Caution: this link contains graphic images
• Pre-accident images of the aircraft
• charter97.org Article with images from the funeral services