5. Pulkovo Aviation Enterprise Flight 612

Pulkovo Aviation Enterprise Flight 612 was an aircraft that crashed in eastern Ukraine, near the Russian border, on August 22, 2006, while en route from Vityazevo Airport (Anapa) to Pulkovo Airport (St.Petersburg).The flight departed Anapa as scheduled. All necessary maintenance was performed as required before the departure. "On Tuesday, at 15:37 (Moscow Time), a Tu-154 airliner of the St. Petersburg-based Pulkovo Airlines sent a SOS signal and disappeared from radar contact at 15:39 (Moscow Time)," Channel One reported. Later it was determined that the plane crashed near the village of Sukha Balka.

"At an altitude of 11 500 metres the aircraft sent three SOS signals, dropped sharply in altitude and sent another SOS at 3000 metres," said Anatoli Samoshin, vice Flight Operations Director at Pulkovo Aviation Enterprise. There were no other communications.

The crash was witnessed by a local farmer and a young couple seeking shelter from the rain. They told reporters that they saw the aircraft falling out of the sky and that it burst into flames upon hitting the ground. Early reports suggest that Flight 612 may have been caught in a thunderstorm; immediately prior to the crash, the pilots notified air traffic control that they were experiencing severe turbulence. According to the residents of a nearby town, the weather at the time of the crash was violent enough to cause power outages and cell phone disruptions on the ground. Authorities on the scene have speculated that the aircraft was struck by lightning which may have initiated an onboard fire. However, another theory has since been proposed - crash investigators believe that the aircraft climbed to an altitude higher than the maximum for which it was designed.

Interstate Aviation Committee (IAC) after initial decoding of flight recorders data issued the following flight safety recommendations: avoid entering thunderstorms, follow all maximum height limitations based on aircraft load and outside air temperature, and improve pilot training when working in these situations.

According to Annex 13 "Aircraft Accident and Incident Investigation" of Chicago Convention IAC does not issue information to public about people or organizations responsible for a crash — the only goal of an IAC investigation is to improve flight safety. Determining the guilty parties can be done only during trial.

The investigators’ final report concluded: The cause of the crash of the Tu-154M RA-85 185 airlines "Pulkovo" was collision with the ground with a large vertical velocity.

6. 2012 Sudan Antonov An-26 crash

The 2012 Sudan Antonov An-26 crash was the 19 August 2012 crash of an aircraft near the town of Talodi, Sudan. The aircraft was carrying Sudanese government delegation, killing all 32 people on board. Victims included members of the Sudanese government, several ranking members of the Sudanese Armed Forces and other officials, and a television crew.

Although some early media reports mistakenly announced the crash as a helicopter crash, the aircraft involved was an Antonov AN-26-100 civilian airplane, chartered for this flight by the Sudanese Government and operated by the Sudanese private air carrier Alfa Airlines (ICAO code AAJ). There have been several deadly plane crashes in Sudan in recent years. But this crash was the first accident in the history of Alfa Airlines, which was founded only in 2009.

The chartered plane was carrying a Sudanese government delegation, from the capital of the country, Khartoum, to the town of Talodi, a war-town with ongoing fighting between Sudan's army and rebel groups, to mark the end of the holy month of Ramadan.

The aircraft was flown by a senior Russian captain, assisted by a Sudanese first officer, a navigator from Tajikistan and an Armenian flight engineer.

Antonov An-26 had taken off from Khartoum International Airport at around 6:02 a.m. local time on 19 August 2012. Approximately at 8 a.m., the plane crashed into the Hajar Al-Nar Mountain of the Nuba mountain range near Talodi, a small town 50 km. from the border with South Sudan. A television statement said that the weather had prevented the aircraft from landing on its first attempt, and on its second attempt, the plane crashed into a mountain.

On 24 August 2012, the local government reported the flight recorders have been found and recovered from the crash site.

An official with Sudan's Civil Aviation Authority said that bad weather was responsible for the crash. Minister of Information Ahmed Bilal Osman also added that the plane was attempting to land in bad weather conditions in Talodi, as seasonal heavy rains left the pilots with "zero visibility," when it crashed into a mountain. The Aviation Herald said that "dust and dirt storms" were responsible for the crash.