MOSCOW. Sept 1 (Interfax) - A commission looking into the crash of the Il-112V military transport plane has yet to arrive at a final conclusion on why the crash happened, commission chairman, Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade Oleg Bocharov said.
"The commission investigating the Il-112V crash is still at work. There are no final conclusions regarding causes of this incident," Bocharov said.
"The information given in an article of the Kommersant newspaper is nothing but assumptions of the sources, these are absolutely not official conclusions. It is too early to speak about causes of this tragedy. They will be established by the commission," he said.
The Kommersant newspaper said earlier, with reference to experts from the Russian Industry and Trade Ministry and the Interstate Aviation Committee, that the Il-112V experimental military transport plane crashed in the Moscow region after a wing aileron control rod broke during engine fire.
"The critical situation on board was triggered by engine fire, yet the plane slid into an uncontrolled side roll and turned upside down after the fire destroyed the right-side aileron control rod. There was nothing the pilots could do under those circumstances, they had nothing to tell each other, so the crew died silently," the newspaper said.
It noted that most specialists pin the tragedy "on the unpreparedness of the first flight sample of the military transport plane for flying and, possibly, its hasty commissioning."
The only flight sample of the new military transport plane Il-112V crashed in the area of the Kubinka airport in the Moscow region on August 17. The crash happened when the plane was preparing for landing after a training flight before the Army 2021 forum. All three crewmembers were killed in the crash. Russian President Vladimir Putin decorated the crew with Courage Orders posthumously "for the courage, valor and selflessness demonstrated while testing new aircraft."
The crashed plane was on the Russian Industry and Trade Ministry's register of experimental aircraft. Deputy Industry and Trade Minister Oleg Bocharov is in charge of the ministry commission investigating the incident.
A criminal case was opened in connection with the Il-112V crash on counts of a breach of safety regulations for flights and aircraft operation.
The Il-112V had TV7-117ST turboprop engines made by Rostec's UEC-Klimov. Similar engines are installed on the Il-114-300 passenger aircraft that is also undergoing trials. According to the United Aircraft Corporation, test flights of the Il-114 have been suspended for clarifying causes of the Il-112V crash.