Belavia Flight 1834 was a scheduled international passenger flight from Yerevan, Armenia, to Minsk, Belarus, operated by Belavia. On the morning of February 14, 2008, the Bombardier Canadair Regional Jet carrying 18 passengers and three crew crashed and burst into flames shortly after take off from Zvartnots International Airport near Yerevan, the capital of Armenia. All on board survived, with at least seven people being injured.
Background
Aircraft
The aircraft involved was a Bombardier CRJ100ER, MSN 7316, registered as EW-101PJ, that was built by Bombardier Aviation in 1999. It had logged approximately 15563 airframe hours and 14352 takeoff and landing cycles. It was also equipped with two General Electric CF34-3A1 engines.
Passengers and crew
The flight was carrying 18 passengers and 3 crew members. The 18 passengers consisted of a citizen each from Belarus, Ukraine, and Russia, along with five Georgians and ten Armenians.
The captain was 50-year-old Viktor Shishlo, who had logged 9,215 flight hours, including 461 hours on the CRJ100. The first officer was 44-year-old Alexander Mukhin, who had 9,454 flight hours with 405 of them on the CRJ100.
Accident
During takeoff, at 04:18 AMT and at a height of around 5 metres (16 ft), the aircraft banked left. The pilot attempted to counter the banking by straightening the aircraft towards the right. The aircraft's wing subsequently entered in contact with the ground and crashed, catching fire and splitting into two. Fire and rescue crews were reportedly on-site within 50 seconds after the crash. The passengers also helped the crew members out of the cockpit. After the crash, the aircraft, badly damaged by fire, laid in an inverted position.
None of the 21 occupants were killed, although seven passengers received serious injuries.: 12
Investigation
Initial speculation pointed to icing on the wings which caused the left wing to stall upon lift-off. Icing conditions were reported at the airport during the crash, and the CRJs are very prone to wing contamination and icing since they do not have any leading edge devices.
Investigation teams from the General Department of Civil Aviation of Armenia, from Belarus, and from Bombardier participated in the investigation to determine the probable cause of the accident.
See also
- Aviation safety
- List of accidents and incidents involving commercial aircraft
- Delta Connection Flight 4819 – another CRJ that also crashed upside down during landing in 2025.
References
External links
- "CRJ-100LR (CL-600-2B19) 14.02.2008." (Archive) Interstate Aviation Committee (in Russian)
- Final Report (Archive) (in Russian)
- "Пресс-релиз Национальной авиакомпании «Белавиа»." Belavia. 14 February 2008. (in Russian)
- Photos of the aircraft involved at Airliners.net
- Belavia Airlines Accident In Yerevan, 21 Injured
- Reports: No Fatalities in Armenian CRJ Takeoff Crash 2008-02-14
- Crash: Belavia CRJ100 at Yerevan on Feb 14th 2008, wing tip strike during takeoff
- "Plane crashes in Armenia's capital". CNN. 14 February 2008. Archived from the original on 17 February 2008. Retrieved 15 February 2008.
- "Plane crashes in Armenian capital". KazInform. 14 February 2008. Archived from the original on 4 September 2008. Retrieved 15 February 2008.
- "Passenger are in Stress". A1 . 14 February 2008. Archived from the original on 17 May 2011. Retrieved 18 February 2008.
