A briefing was organized at the Prosecutor General’s Office on the initial results of the criminal case, which is under investigation over a helicopter accident

Baku, December 20, AZERTAC

A briefing was organized at the Prosecutor General’s Office on 20 December 2021 on the initial results of the criminal case, which is under investigation over the crash of a helicopter owned by the State Border Service (SBS) during a training exercise on 30 November 2021.

According to AZƏRTAC, the First Deputy Prosecutor General, Elchin Mammadov, the chief of the Investigation Department of the Prosecutor General’s Office, Nemat Avazov, the deputy chief of the Investigation Department of the Prosecutor General’s Office and the head of the investigation team over the helicopter crash, Sanan Pashayev, the senior aide to the Prosecutor General on special assignments, Tural Aslanov, the head of the press service of the Prosecutor General’s Office Gunay Salimzada, as well as experts and media representatives attended the briefing.

It was informed during the briefing that the Investigation Department of the Prosecutor General’s Office was continuing an investigation into the criminal case initiated in accordance with the relevant articles of the Criminal Code over the death of 14 people and injury of 2 people following the crash of the helicopter in the territory of Khizi district.

Numerous intensive investigative actions, expert evaluations and other probes established that the MI-17-1V helicopter with aircraft No. 20136 of the State Border Service took off as a leading aircraft at 10:16 on 30 November 2021 from an undefined military unit in Sangachal settlement to carry out a flight and shooting exercise in line with the approved plan. This helicopter was followed by another helicopter of the same make with aircraft No. 20137, which was also involved in the exercise. The helicopters flew at a distance of about 70 meters from each other. After flying 17 minutes 24 second, the leading helicopter with aircraft No. 20136 crashed at 10:33 when landing in the helicopter site at the Garaheybat training center of the Ministry of Defense in the territory of Khizi district.

When the helicopter with aircraft No. 20136 started to descend, an instructor in the helicopter gave an assignment to the crew of the other helicopter of the same make, which was also involved in the exercise, to clarify whether there were livestock in the territory of the shooting exercise. The other helicopter continued flying without changing its direction to carry out the assignment, but after seeing the leading helicopter crash, it landed safely at the same coordinate at 10:36.

It was stated during the briefing that the crashed helicopter of a landing craft type was manufactured at the plant in the city of Kazan in Russia in 2012 and was purchased by the SBS at the end of that year and put into commissioning in accordance with the contract. A new automatic recording system of flight parameters or a black box with more memory and capacities of making records on more parameters as compared to the black box, which was made on the helicopter during manufacturing, was purchased from the Czech Republic under the order placed in 2013 and was installed on the helicopter by the specialists of the manufacturing company in 2015. In accordance with the relevant manual the helicopter was transported to the plant in the city of Saratov in Russia in September 2020 under the contract on technical inspection and repair. After appropriate technical service in April of the current year the helicopter was brought back into the country and was in commissioning, having flown 116 hours before the day of the crash. No malfunction had ever been observed in the commission of the helicopter before and after the technical inspection and repair.

It was also informed that the investigation had not found any offense in relation to the flight and involvement of the helicopter in the exercise on the day of the crash. Thus, the helicopter was involved in the exercise through the identification of members of the crew in line with the pre-approved plan. No violation of regulations was found in this process.

The automatic recording system of flight parameters, the black box, which was of great importance for identification of the causes of the helicopter crash and was fully fit for investigation purposes, was opened by specialists of the relevant manufacturing company with participation of representatives of the Prosecutor General’s Office of the Republic of Azerbaijan and the Prosecutor’s Office of the Czech Republic on the basis of an inquiry for legal aid. Data on all the parameters, including voice recordings on flight administration, from the pre-flight preparations to the moment of the crash were presented to the Azerbaijani side. According to the opinions from the Ministry of Defense, the State Border Service and professional specialists of ASG Helicopter Services on the basis of the recordings on numerous parameters in the time of flight administration, as well as the evidence which proves the cases shown in the opinions, the current stage of the investigation identifies that the blunders of the pilots in handing the helicopter during landing in breach of the commissioning rules of the helicopter without taking into account the direction and speed of wind was the cause of the crash.

Thus, the crew of the helicopter made a decision to land in the helicopter site in line with the route 16 minutes 59 seconds after takeoff. At that time, the speed of the helicopter was 141 km per hour, while radio height (the distance from the earth to the helicopter) was 101 meters. Since landing started at 17 minutes 10 seconds of the flight without properly taking into account the direction of wind, serious changes occurred in the flight parameters of the helicopter and the flight speed of 0 km per hour and radio height of 89 meters were recorded. Shortly after that the pilots attempted to avoid the accident, but didn’t manage to do so.

The investigation found that the crash happened within a short time from 17 minutes 17 second to 17 minutes 24 seconds of the flight after the control of the helicopter was lost due to the faults of the pilots. In accordance with the analysis of the data in the automatic recording system of flight parameters, the cause of the crash was premature collective full down action (the collective pitch of the main rotor blade), over-pitch (the degree of the nose of the helicopter in relation to the vertical line in the upper direction) and misevaluation of the direction and strength of wind. All these eventually caused the tail blade (which functions to keep a helicopter’s balance) of the uncontrollable helicopter to touch ground and break following a sudden decrease in motor revolutions, speed and height. Then, the part of the right wing of the helicopter, which is designed for keeping fight ammunition, touched ground and broke, the helicopter hit ground on its left side and slid, broke off the ground under the impact of the working main rotor blade and again forcefully hit ground on its left side and an explosion and fire occurred as a result of sliding.

It was noted that under the initial forensic examination, the cause of death of the people who died in the crash was traumatic shock suffered from bodily harm of different degrees.

The left door and windscreen of the helicopter broke away as a result of forceful hitting on the ground and four people in the helicopter were thrown out. Two of them died immediately because of the seriousness of their bodily harm, while the other two suffered different minor injuries.

The investigation into the criminal case is currently under way. More information will be provided to the public on the course of the investigation.

The media and users of social networks are warned that dissemination of information on the helicopter accident, which has not been confirmed with official sources, is inadmissible and creates accountability in accordance with the laws.