Aeroflot Flight 1492 was a scheduled passenger flight from Moscow–Sheremetyevo to Murmansk, Russia.
On 5 May 2019, the Sukhoi Superjet 100 aircraft operating the flight was climbing out when it was struck by lightning. The aircraft suffered an electrical failure and returned to Sheremetyevo for an emergency landing.
It bounced on landing and touched down hard, causing the landing gear to collapse, fuel to spill out of the wings and a fire to erupt.
The fire engulfed the rear of the aircraft, and 41 of the 78 occupants were unable to evacuate and lost their lives.
Five crew and 73 passengers were onboard on the aircraft. The crew consisted of the captain, a first officer and three cabin crew members. The captain, aged 42, held an Airline Transport Pilot Licence and had 6,844 flying hours, including 1,570 on the Superjet.
Interim report
During landing, sidestick inputs were “of an abrupt and intermittent character”, including wide-amplitude, sweeping pitch movements not observed during approaches in normal flight law, but similar to other Aeroflot pilots’ direct flight law approaches.
The report also noted that the pilots ignored a windshear warning that would have required a go-around unless it was spurious. Investigators found traces of lightning impact on antennae, various sensors, exit lights and the cockpit windows.
