Wagner IL-76 crashes in Mali

[George K]

Looks like he ran out of runway.

[Doctor Phibes]

That thing didn't seem to slow down at all after it landed

[George K]

In the comments: "Someone cut the brake line."

[taiwan_girl]

It would be Interesting to hear the "black box" audio.

[89th]

At very first glance it looks like it touched down late and perhaps the pilots were too indecisive to either try and stop or perform a touch-an-go (take off again). With a plane that large, I doubt there is much time to decide.

[George K]

Here's the airport. Rule of thumb is to set it down in the 1st ⅓ of the runway, ideally where you see the bright white markings here (though that's not ⅓). Anything past that, consider going around.

Runway is 11,253 feet long. I wonder how much the IL-76 needs.

[George K]

By the way, the Russian Air Force has about 115 of these beasts.

Since the start of the Ukraine war, this is the 4th one lost.

[89th]

Reddit folks chime in:

From a flight instructor:
This — no spoilers deployed means the wings are still creating lift and the brakes a can’t function correctly. You’ve got to have weight displaced down to the wheels to allow the brakes to function. Also, It looked like a long landing where he was carrying too much speed. My guess is he thought he could save it from past experience, but that past experience would have included spoilers. No spoilers = ineffective braking = kaboom. The correct response would have been go around, but that is Master of the Obvious stuff in light of what happened.

Couldn’t have happened to a nicer group of fellows….

Someone else:

I looked on google maps: looks like it touched down around 3500 ft after the touchdown zone (just a bit after the taxiway junction, landing on 06, see the parked plane in the foreground in the video), with 3700 ft of runway left (aiming at the very last bit of asphalt). Then 1200 ft of dust until the end of the plateau.

By my measure, the average speed from touchdown to the second taxiway was 195 kts (6s for 2000 ft), then from there to the end of the runway 130 kts (6s for 1300 ft), and from there to the end of the plateau 105 kts (7s for 1200 ft).

Also, maybe it was the brakes:

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11080039/amp/Russian-pilots-stop-using-BRAKES-country-faces-shortage-parts-sanctions.html

[taiwan_girl]

https://www.france24.com/en/africa/20240728-mali-rebels-say-killed-dozens-of-government-troops-wagner-fighters-russia-clashes-north

Mali's northern Tuareg rebels said they had killed and injured dozens of soldiers and Wagner mercenaries in two days of fighting near the Algerian border, after the army said it had lost two soldiers but killed some 20 rebels.

and

Several Russian military bloggers reported on Sunday that at least 20 from the Wagner group were killed in an ambush near the Algerian border.

"Employees of the Wagner PMC (Group), who were moving in a convoy with government troops, were killed in Mali ... Some were captured," said a prominent Russian military blogger Semyon Pegov, who uses the name War Gonzo.

The Baza Telegram news channel, which has links to Russia's security structures, reported that at least 20 Wagner fighters have been killed.

[Mik]

what a cheerful start to my day!

[taiwan_girl]

@Mik 555

[Wim]

The name 'War Gonzo' tells you all you need to know.