On 7 September 2011, YAK-Service Flight 9633, a Yakovlev Yak-42 carrying players and coaching staff of the Lokomotiv Yaroslavl professional ice hockey team, crashed during take-off near Yaroslavl, Yaroslavl Oblast, Russia. All but one of the 45 people on board were killed. The aircraft overran the runway at Tunoshna Airport before briefly lifting off, striking an antenna mast, catching fire, and crashing on the bank of the Volga river. The tragedy is commonly known as the Lokomotiv hockey team disaster.
Lokomotiv Yaroslavl, a member of the Kontinental Hockey League (KHL), was on its way to Minsk, Belarus, to start the 2011–12 season. All players from the main roster (with the exception of Maxim Zyuzyakin) and four from the youth team were on board and died in the accident. The only survivor was the aircraft's mechanic; one player also survived the crash, but died in the following days from injuries.
The subsequent investigation determined that several factors contributed to the accident, including poor training; the incorrect calculation of the take-off speed by the flight crew; and the inadvertent application of wheel braking by one of the pilots, who had improperly placed his feet on the pedals. It was later revealed that the pilot had used falsified documents to obtain permission to fly the aircraft, and that both crew members lacked the training necessary to fly the Yak-42.
Background At the time of the crash, Lokomotiv Yaroslavl, established in 1959, was one of the top ice hockey teams in Russia. The team won the Russian Open Championship in 1997, 2002 and 2003, and were finalists in 2008 and 2009, making it to the third round of the playoffs in four straight seasons. Lokomotiv lost in the 2010 KHL Western Conference finals 4–3 to HC MVD, and lost in the 2011 KHL Western Conference Finals 4–2 to Atlant Moscow Oblast. Several players were about to make their debut with the team, including former National Hockey League (NHL) players Ruslan Salei and Kārlis Skrastiņš. Also set to make their coaching debuts were former NHL players Igor Korolev and Brad McCrimmon.
The accident was the second plane crash in Russia involving a hockey team. In 1950, the entire VVS Moscow team died in a plane crash near Sverdlovsk (now known as Yekaterinburg) in Sverdlovsk Oblast.
YAK-Service In 2009, YAK-Service, the airline operating the accident aircraft, had been investigated by the European Commission over airworthiness and air safety concerns. Russian authorities imposed restrictions on the carrier, and made YAK-Service subject to ramp inspections to international standards. In May 2010, the Russian Ministry of Transport prohibited YAK-Service from flying into European Civil Aviation Conference airspace, a restriction that was lifted the following August. The European Commission, however, was not satisfied that mandatory equipment was present on all YAK-Service aircraft, and banned two of the company's Yakovlev Yak-40s from operating in European airspace.
Accident On 7 September 2011, the weather at Tunoshna Airport was good, with light winds, good visibility and a temperature of . The Yak-42, registered as RA-42434, entered Runway 05/23 at taxiway 5, located from the runway threshold. Runway 05/23 was long, leaving for the take-off run. After the aircraft was cleared for take-off, it accelerated to an estimated but failed to lift off. The Yak-42 ran off past the end of the runway for before lifting off. The left wing tip then struck an antenna mast located about from the end of the runway, and rapidly rotated to an attitude of 20° nose-up, reaching a height of from the ground.
Following the aircraft’s impact with the mast, it veered left and crashed on the riverbank of the Tunoshonka River, from where it joins the Volga, losing its tail assembly on impact while the front part of the jet disintegrated. The tail section came to rest in the water, while the rest of the fuselage ended up on dry land. The location of the wreckage was approximately from the end of the runway.
Witness reports described the aircraft as "bursting into flames" after hitting the mast. Another witness report described the engines as going silent seconds before the crash. Yet another report indicated that the aircraft hit trees before it crashed. Debris from the aircraft was found just past the mast site, continuing from that point to the crash site. The crew did not report any technical problems to air traffic control. The plane's left wing struck the mast when it struggled to become airborne.
Aircraft The aircraft involved, a Yakovlev Yak-42D with registration RA-42434 and serial number 4520424305017, was manufactured in 1993. After serving with several airlines, it joined the Yak-Service fleet.
The Yak-42, a three-engine medium-range passenger jet, was designed with a 36-year service life, and RA-42434 still had an estimated 60% of its service life remaining. According to Deputy Transport Minister Valery Okulov, one of the three engines on the aircraft had been replaced a month prior to the crash. The aircraft was due to be taken out of service at the end of 2011 for a scheduled major overhaul.
Passengers and crew
The aircraft manifest listed eight crew members and 37 passengers. The flight crew was composed of Captain Andrei Anatolievich Solomentsev (Russian: Андрей Анатолиевич Соломенцев), who had 6,900 hours of flight experience of which 1,500 were on Yak-42s; First Officer Igor Konstantinovich Zhevelov (Russian: Игорь Константинович Жевелов), with 13,500 hours' experience of which only 614 were on Yak-42s; and Flight Engineer Sergei Valerievich Zhuravlev (Russian: Сергей Валериевич Журавьлев). The flight's mechanic, Alexander Sizov, who travelled in the passenger cabin, was the only survivor of the crash. Alexander Galimov, one of the team players on board, was found alive and hospitalized, but died five days later. The bodies of the victims were all recovered from the scene.
According to eyewitnesses, both Galimov and Sizov were severely burned, but were conscious while being rescued. Both men were transported to Moscow for treatment. The two were placed in medically induced comas to relieve stress; however, Galimov died on 12 September at the Vishnevsky Institute of Surgery. Sizov was moved from intensive care to a ward on 12 September, and his life was considered to be out of danger. He was discharged from the hospital on 28 October.
Hockey players killed Twenty-six players of the Lokomotiv Yaroslavl ice hockey team were killed:
PlayerAgeCountryPositionVitaly Anikeyenko24DMikhail Balandin31Gennady Churilov24CPavol Demitra36Robert Dietrich25DAlexander Galimov26LWMarat Kalimulin23DAlexander KalyaninRWAndrei Kiryukhin24Nikita Klyukin21CStefan Liv30GJan Marek31CSergei Ostapchuk21LWKarel Rachůnek32DRuslan Salei36Maxim Shuvalov18Kārlis Skrastiņš37Pavel Snurnitsyn19FDaniil Sobchenko20CIvan Tkachenko31LWPavel Trakhanov33DYuri Urychev20Josef Vašíček30CAlexander Vasyunov23LWAlexander Vyukhin38GArtem Yarchuk21LW
Team staff killed Among the team staff on board were: NameAgeCountryPositionAlexander Karpovtsev41Assistant coachIgor KorolevBrad McCrimmon52Head coach
Goalkeeper coach Jorma Valtonen was not on the aircraft as he stayed behind to work with the junior team.
Reactions
Russian president Dmitry Medvedev, who had been on his way to Yaroslavl for the Yaroslavl Global Policy Forum, sent his condolences to the families of those killed in the crash and visited the crash site along with governor of Yaroslavl Oblast, Sergey Vakhrukov. René Fasel, president of the International Ice Hockey Federation, called the crash "the darkest day in the history of our sport." Manchester United chief executive David Gill wrote to the Russian side to offer support and sympathy after hearing of the tragedy, which bore unsettling similarities to the Munich air disaster which cost 23 United players, staff and journalists their lives in 1958.
Early into New York Islanders training camp, goaltender Evgeni Nabokov, having played the previous season in the KHL, expressed shock and sadness at the news.
Upon hearing the news of the accident, KHL officials stopped the Salavat Yulaev Ufa–Atlant Moscow Oblast game that was being played. The game was suspended in the second period, and KHL president Alexander Medvedev addressed the audience at the game, informing them of the details of the tragedy. A minute of silence was held and the audience exited the arena. Russian Ice Hockey Federation president Vladislav Tretiak promised: "We will do our best to ensure that hockey in Yaroslavl does not die, and that it continues to live for the people that were on that plane." The following day in Minsk, at the arena where Yaroslavl was to play its first game of the season, a special "hockey funeral" was held. The KHL resumed its 2011–12 season on 12 September 2011, with seven games. All games were preceded with a minute of silence.
City officials in Yaroslavl announced a three-day period of mourning from Friday 9 September 2011 to Sunday 11 September 2011. On 10 September, memorial services for the players were held in their mother countries. The biggest services were held in Arena 2000, the home arena of Lokomotiv Yaroslavl, with thousands of mourners as well as Russian prime minister Vladimir Putin in attendance. Local police determined the crowd number at Lokomotiv's home arena to be roughly 100,000.
Lokomotiv executives met to discuss the team's future. In the discussion, team president Yuri Yakovlev announced that Lokomotiv would not participate in the 2011–12 KHL season. On 12 September 2011, Lokomotiv marketing manager Evgeny Chuev said that another memorial, this time specifically for Galimov, would be held on 13 September.
In the United States, the Dallas Stars, the team which Kārlis Skrastiņš played for the previous two seasons, honored their former teammate by placing a decal with Skrastiņš's number (37) on the helmets of their players. Josef Vašíček's former NHL team, the Carolina Hurricanes, wore a commemorative patch on their jerseys during the season. The Detroit Red Wings wore a patch on their 2011–2012 uniforms with the initials of Ruslan Salei, who had played for Detroit during the previous season. The patch the Red Wings wore also honored Brad McCrimmon, who had played for the team and been an assistant coach, and Stefan Liv, who was drafted by Detroit and played for their minor-league team. Furthermore, the Anaheim Ducks embroidered Salei's number (#24) on their jerseys for the season. The New Jersey Devils wore a commemorative patch on their jerseys honoring former Devils players Karel Rachůnek and Alexander Vasyunov. The St. Louis Blues also held a memorial ceremony for former players Pavol Demitra and Igor Korolev before their 8 November game against the Chicago Blackhawks. The Blues players also wore a special '38' sticker on their helmets, as both players wore that number with the Blues. Blues goaltender Jaroslav Halák also had his 2011–12 goaltending mask made with a tribute to his fellow Slovak Demitra on the backplate. In Sweden, over 10,000 relatives and fans of HV71 attended Kinnarps Arena, the team's home arena, to mourn Liv, Lokomotiv's Swedish goaltender.