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Status:	Final
Date:	14 SEP 2008
Time:	03:15
Type:	Boeing 737-505
Operator:	Aeroflot-Nord
Registration:	VP-BKO
C/n / msn:	25792/2353
First flight:	1992-08-22 (16 years )
Engines:	2 CFMI CFM56-3C1
Crew:	Fatalities: 6 / Occupants: 6
Passengers:	Fatalities: 82 / Occupants: 82
Total:	Fatalities: 88 / Occupants: 88
Airplane damage:	Destroyed
Airplane fate:	Written off (damaged beyond repair)
Location:	11,5 km (7.2 mls) NE of Perm Airport (PEE) (Russia)
Phase:	Approach (APR)
Nature:	Domestic Scheduled Passenger
Departure airport:	Moskva-Sheremetyevo Airport (SVO/UUEE), Russia
Destination airport:	Perm Airport (PEE/USPP), Russia

Narrative:
Flight 821 took off from Moscow (SVO) on a domestic flight to Perm. Contact with the flight was lost while the airplane was at 3600 feet in "difficult weather conditions", according to Aeroflot officials.
The plane came down on the outskirts of the city, hitting the ground just a few hundred yards from small wooden houses and apartment buildings.
Investitgation revealed that the pilot lost spatial orientation during the night-time approach through clouds. This led to a banking of the plane onto its left wing, and its entering into an intensive descent and collision with the ground. The pilot was not familiar with the attitude indicator (ADI) used on Western jets, compared to those of Russian jets. Also, an unspecified amount of alcohol was detected in the pilot's body, and he was overworked.

The probable cause of the aircraft accident was the loss of spatial orientation of the crew, primarily the captain's failure to actively pilot the plane at the final stage of flight, which led to a lerft-hand bank, entering a steep descent and collision with the ground. The loss of spatial orientation occurred during a night flight, in clouds, with the autopilot disconnected, and automatic thrust control. A factor contributing to the loss of spatial orientation and the inability of its recovery, was the lack of training of the crew in techniques of piloting an aircraft, crew resource management (CRM) and insufficient skills coping with complex aircraft attitudes of aircraft with Attitude Direction Indicators installed on foreign and domestic modern aircraft. This indication differs from the display used on the types of aircraft which the crew previously operated (Tu-134, Antonov 2).

Events:

Sources:
» RIA Novosti
» AP

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record created: 2008-09-15; record last updated: 2009-03-22 (Probable cause)