Borodianka mid-air collision

On the 10th of February 1995 at 16:09 CET, the first Antonov An-70 prototype aircraft collided with an Antonov An-72 that was assisting with the An-70 test program over Borodianka Raion in Ukraine. 

The Antonov 70 prototype took off from Kiev-Gostomel Airport (GML/UKKM) with an Antonov 72 as its chase-plane. Whilst flying at 3200 mts (10,500 feet) the An-70 lost altitude causing the tail to collide with the An-72's fuselage and its propfan.

All seven crew members on board the An-70 were killed; the An-72 was able to make a safe emergency landing at Hostomel Airport in Kyiv with no fatalities.

A Ukrainian-led commission reported that the cause was human error and blamed the flight maneuvers by the crew as the major contributing factor to the crash. Leonid Berestov is quoted as saying "The careless actions of both crews in their formation flying led to a collision and crash".

Several faults were observed in the three test flights that took place before the accident flight, including flight control problems during the second flight and again during the third flight, on the day preceding the collision.

The An-72 aircraft retired due to severe damage, and its cockpit was used as a training aircraft.