Details of the gyrocopter crash near Minsk became known

What happened?

On April 14, sightseeing flights with passengers were conducted at the Ozyartso site. The pilot was 45-year-old Ruslan Ivanov, previously known as the guitarist of the band "Tsvet Aloe". The first passenger was 26-year-old Tatsiana Palyanskaya.

According to the report, the flight lasted less than a minute. The only video recording that helped experts was made by the deceased passenger on her phone. She meticulously documented the pilot's actions, instrument readings, and the circumstances that led to the tragedy.

At the 14th second of the flight, at an altitude of 30-40 meters, the gyrocopter entered a zone of turbulence. Its intensity increased.

Due to the shaking, the nose of the gyrocopter began to pitch up – the aircraft was entering a steeper climb than necessary. The pilot initially reacted correctly: he pulled the control bar towards him, and the nose began to lower back down. However, the aircraft continued to gain altitude under the influence of an updraft.

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Why did the gyrocopter fall?

Expert analysis showed that the pilot apparently tried to prevent the aircraft from descending and to compensate for the bank. But at a certain point, he deviated from the instructions, causing the gyrocopter to lose stability.

Experts believe that the intense turbulence came as a surprise to the pilot, because he did not sufficiently analyze the actual weather conditions.

At the 20th second of the flight, the aircraft entered a so-called "tumble" — uncontrolled rotation around its transverse axis. The structure began to break apart mid-air: the left transverse wing tube broke, the half-wing folded, and the aircraft began to rotate intensely.

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Due to overloads, the buckle of Ivanov's harness broke — and he was ejected from the cockpit. The passenger, strapped in, remained in her seat until the very fall (the commander's friend said she nose-dived alone for about seven seconds).

As a result, both occupants of the flight died. The pilot's body was found 30 meters from the site of the aircraft's crash.

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What is known about the pilot?

The document does not state the name of the deceased pilot, but it was mentioned earlier — it was Ruslan Ivanov. According to the report, he was not only the aircraft commander that day, but also the director of the company "Aviasvet", which operated the gyrocopter and the landing site in Ozyartso.

Ivanov began training in gyrocopter flights in 2018, and in 2023, he received a commercial pilot's license. His total flight time was 558 hours; he had not been involved in any previous accidents or incidents.

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Just a few days before the tragedy, Ivanov underwent a commission of the Ministry of Health, which declared him fit for work. However, on the day of the flight, he did not pass a pre-flight medical examination, although aviation rules require it mandatory. In the "pre-flight medical examination" column, "self-control" was indicated.

A post-mortem forensic examination found no traces of alcohol or narcotics in his blood; death resulted from injuries sustained upon impact with the ground.

Where did the turbulence come from?

Formally, the weather on the day of the incident was fine: visibility 8-10 kilometers, partly cloudy, light wind. Before the flights began, Ivanov inquired about the weather at the local control point.

But the authors of the report note that all this does not exclude danger for a gyrocopter.

"A gyrocopter has a small mass, a significant wing area, a soft wing structure, and weight-shift control," they explain. "Therefore, local vertical gusts of thermal airflows, causing sharp changes in angles of attack, and short-term horizontal wind shear can have a much greater impact on a gyrocopter than on heavier aircraft with more effective aerodynamic control."

That day was partly cloudy, which allowed the sun to intensively heat the ground. On the terrain map, it is visible that one area was darker than another.

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"Open areas of terrain, especially dry fields and areas with darker surfaces, heat up faster than forests, wet lowlands, or shaded zones. At the boundaries of such heterogeneous (contrasting) surfaces, due to their uneven heating, zones of local convergence and the formation of thermal airflows (thermals) and air vortices are possible."

According to expert analysis, the aircraft entered updrafts precisely near the boundary of such a "zone with a contrasting surface".

Why did the tube break?

The tube that broke during the flight was sent for examination to the Central Research Institute of the Russian Ministry of Defense's Air Force. According to its results, the material "complies with the requirements of technical documentation."

The authors of the report also thoroughly examined the fracture itself and the deformation of the tube. In their assessment, "the destruction occurred due to the action of a single tensile and bending load with torsion, which exceeded the strength of the tube."

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Simply put, this element was subjected to an excessively strong load. However, experts found no signs of destruction due to metal fatigue or corrosion. They also found no material defects at the fracture site.

Not everything was clear with the apparatus itself

Upon inspecting the wreckage, specialists noticed a serious discrepancy. The crashed aircraft showed the tail number EW-307SL. According to documentation, the gyrocopter with this number should have had a Honda D16ZC engine and an "Atom" wing.

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However, it turned out to have a Suzuki-G16B engine and a BLIK-14 wing – a configuration not provided for in the documentation.

Meanwhile, another gyrocopter was in the hangar – with the correct engine and wing, but without a plate showing the state and registration marks (only mounting holes were present).

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The commission concluded that the plates with the state and registration marks, as well as the factory number, were removed from another gyrocopter and reattached to the aircraft that ultimately crashed.

The "substituted" device, which caused the tragedy, had no documents, registration, or airworthiness certificate. Its date of manufacture and service life were "not established" in the report. Even its owner could not be identified (in another part of the document, a "private individual" is indicated).

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Who made this substitution and when, the authors do not write. Presumably, this question was not within the committee's competence.

The authors of the document emphasize that their investigation "does not involve establishing anyone's guilt or responsibility," and the purpose of the publication is to prevent aviation accidents in the future.

Among the IAC's final recommendations are:

• to strengthen control over the legality of flights by "private individuals";
• to ensure that ultralight aircraft pilots have sufficient knowledge of turbulence;
• to limit training and familiarization flights with passengers during hours "with a high level of thermal activity in the atmosphere," especially in spring, and if necessary, to organize weather reconnaissance before performing flights;
• to consider the possibility of equipping gyrocopters with a quick-deploying parachute system when performing flights with passengers and trainees.

Earlier, the Investigative Committee initiated a criminal case regarding the gyrocopter crash. The case was opened under Part 3 of Article 314 of the Criminal Code (Violation of air transport safety rules, negligently resulting in the death of two persons), and is being handled by employees of the Main Investigative Department of the Investigative Committee. They will also need to establish the correctness of "the operation of aircraft of this type throughout the country" to "prevent similar incidents."

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