The crew of a Russian Sukhoi SuperJet reportedly perished in a crash near Moscow on Friday, moments after they sent a distress signal.

The accident happened on the 12th of July, involving GazpromAvia flight 4G-9608. This was a non-revenue flight, with only three pilots on board. There is little information on this crash beyond official Russian sources because the SuperJet wasn’t transmitting an ADS-B signal.

Various sources describe this as a ferry flight or a test flight – or both. The aircraft took off from Tretyakovo Airport (UUMT) in Lukhovitsy, near Moscow. Its destination was reportedly Vnukovo Andrei Tupolev International Airport (UUWW).

Tretyakovo Airport includes an aircraft production and testing facility, where the accident aircraft was undergoing maintenance. The last time this aircraft flew with an active ADS-B transmitter was on the 3rd of May this year.

SuperJet Crash Flight

We don’t know if the accident aircraft made any further test flights between then and today’s crash. But during its last flight, the plane took off from Tretyakovo’s runway 28 and reportedly only climbed to approximately 3,000 feet before it started losing altitude.

According to the Aviation Herald, the crash site of the SuperJet is approximately at N54.98 E38.55. This is about 17 nautical miles from the flight’s departure airport and suggests that the aircraft remained on its runway heading after departure.

The crew of the Sukhoi SuperJet reportedly sent a distress signal shortly before the crash. They did not survive the impact. There were no other losses, according to the authorities. The flight only lasted about 7 minutes. Russia’s TASS news agency reported that an engine failure could have been a factor in this accident.

The aircraft involved in this crash is a Sukhoi SuperJet 100-95LR (SU95, more recently rebranded Yakovlev SJ-100) with tail number RA-89049. The approximately nine-and-a-half-year-old aircraft belonged to and was operated by GazpromAvia.

GazpromAvia is a subsidiary of Gazprom, a Russian oil and gas company. The airline operates mainly charter flights for passengers and cargo, principally to support the group’s oil and gas activities in Russia and worldwide. Including the accident aircraft, GazpromAvia had a total of 8 SuperJets, plus three Boeing 737-700s.

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