RUSSIA: Pilot Of The Russian An-12 Aircraft Dies In Flight To Egypt

The commander of the Russian An-12 aircraft lost consciousness during the flight to Egypt and died in the hospital.

The crew managed to make an unscheduled landing without his participation.

After 4.5 hours after takeoff, the commander of the Russian aircraft An-12 lost consciousness, in connection with which the crew had to make an emergency landing in the Egyptian city of Hurghada, where the team was waiting for the doctors.

However it did not help,the Pilot died in the hospital, El Nile.

It is reported that the preliminary cause of death was massive heart attack.

The source added that the incident risk of a large number of victims was not, as the plane was cargo.

The Antonov An-12 is a four-engined turboprop transport aircraft designed in the Soviet Union.

It is the military version of the Antonov An-10 and has many variants.

The first prototype An-12 flew in December 1957.

Over 900 had been built, both military and civilian versions when Soviet production finally ended in 1973.

The An-12BP entered Soviet military service in 1959. In terms of configuration, size, and capability, the aircraft is similar to the United States-built Lockheed C-130 Hercules.

Soviet military and former-Soviet An-12s have a defensive tail gun turret.

In the 1960s, China purchased several An-12 aircraft from the Soviet Union, along with a license to assemble the aircraft locally.

Due to the Sino-Soviet split, the Soviet Union withdrew its technical assistance and the first flight of a Chinese-assembled An-12 was delayed until 1974.

The Xi'an Aircraft Company and Xi'an Aircraft Design Institute worked to reverse-engineer the An-12 for local production.

In 1981, the Chinese version of the An-12, designated Y-8, entered production.

Since then, the Y-8 has become one of China's most popular military and civilian transport/cargo aircraft, with many variants produced and exported.

A Tu-16/H-6 bomber navigator cockpit design was chosen for the Y-8 instead of the original An-12 shorter navigator cockpit design, as the H-6 bomber had been in serial production for some time.

Although the An-12 is no longer in production either in Russia or in Ukraine, the Y-8 is upgraded and produced in China.

The latest Y8-F600 is a joint venture between the Shaanxi Aircraft Company, Antonov Aeronautical Scientific Technical Complex (ASTC), and Pratt & Whitney Canada.

The Y8-F600 has a redesigned fuselage, western avionics, PW150B turboprop engines with an R-408 propeller system, and a two-crew glass cockpit.

It is unknown whether the Shaanxi Y-8 remains in production.

Currently the An-12 is very popular with cargo operators, especially those in the CIS, Africa and the Indian subcontinent.

On 12 January 2009, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) issued a temporary ban of the An-12 from flying over their airspace following runway incursions at Sharjah International Airport and the GCAA has advised operators to stop using the aircraft.

The ban was made permanent in Feb 2010.


Tourism Observer