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.
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.
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.
On 7 September 2011, the weather at Tunoshna Airport was good, with light winds, good visibility and a temperature of 18 °C (64 °F). The Yak-42, registered as RA-42434, entered Runway 05/23 at taxiway 5, located 300 metres (980 ft) from the runway threshold. Runway 05/23 was 3,000 metres (9,800 ft) long, leaving 2,700 metres (8,900 ft) for the take-off run. After the aircraft was cleared for take-off, it accelerated to an estimated 230 km/h (120 kn; 140 mph) but failed to lift off. The Yak-42 ran off past the end of the runway for 400 m (1,300 ft) before lifting off. The left wing tip then struck an antenna mast located about 450 metres (1,480 ft) from the end of the runway, and rapidly climbed to an altitude of 20° nose-up, reaching a height of 5–6 metres (16–20 ft) from the ground.
Following the aircraft’s impact with the mast, it veered left and crashed on the riverbank of the Tunoshonka River, 200 metres (660 ft) 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 2 kilometres (1.2 mi) 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.
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.
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.
Twenty-six players of the Lokomotiv Yaroslavl ice hockey team were killed:
Among the team staff on board were:
Goalkeeper coach Jorma Valtonen was not on the aircraft as he stayed behind to work with the junior team.
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.