In Irkutsk they remember one of the worst air disasters in the citys history. On December 6 1997 a military transport An 124 Ruslan fell on a residential building killing 72 people.
On December 6, 1997, a horrific plane crash occurred in Irkutsk: the military transport aircraft An-124 Ruslan fell onto a house. Every year on December 6 at 14:45, the sound of a bell is heard in Irkutsk-2. The people of Irkutsk mourn the victims of the disaster.Recall that exactly 18 years ago, the An-124, carrying two Su-27 fighter jets and 140 tons of fuel tanks, took off from the IAPO airfield in Irkutsk-2. Within less than a minute after the aircraft lifted off the runway, the first and third engines shut down, after which the same happened to the second engine as well. An attempt to keep the aircraft aloft on the one remaining engine, made by the crew under the command of Lieutenant Colonel Vladimir Fedorov, was unsuccessful, and the aircraft, entering a right bank, crashed into house No. 45 on Grazhdanskaya Street.
The tail of the aircraft struck house No. 120 on Mira Street, and the remaining debris hit the nearby building of the children's home. The severe consequences of the disaster were also largely caused by the dozens of tons of aviation fuel that ignited instantly. By the morning of December 7, the fire had been extinguished. The tragedy claimed the lives of 72 people, with 23 people on board the aircraft; the rest of the dead, including 14 children, were on the ground. More than 70 families were left homeless.
The cause of the engine failure was deemed to be excessive overload.
Later, the Church of the Nativity of Christ was built on the site of that very house at 45 Grazhdanskaya Street.