Gazpromavia Flight 9608

The plane was operating a ferry and test flight from the Lukhovitsy Aviation Plant after some maintenance.^[3] Three minutes after take off the plane made its last contact with the air traffic controller, and reached its maximum altitude of 1,600 metres (5,249 ft).^{[citation needed]} The plane crashed 7 minutes after take off, about 80 kilometres (50 mi) south-east of its destination airport, near the city of Kolomna, in a wooded area killing all three crew members on board,^[4][5][6] namely two pilots and a flight engineer, all of whom were employees of Sukhoi.^[3] According to Novaya Gazeta, the plane sent a distress signal and circled to burn fuel preparing to perform an emergency landing, before crashing.^[7] According to sources cited by Izvestia the probable cause of the crash were malfunctioning angle of attack sensors installed during maintenance.^[8] This is the fifth hull loss and third fatal accident of the Superjet since its introduction in 2011.^[9]

The aircraft involved was a Sukhoi Superjet 100-95LR, MSN 95078, and registered as RA-89049. The aircraft was manufactured in 2014 and the flight consisted of three crew members, composed by captain Evgeniy Bulavko, first officer Vladislav Kharlamov and flight engineer Maxim Lukmanov.^{[10][7][11][12]}

The investigation will be carried out by the Interstate Aviation Committee.^[13] On the evening of 12 July, both flight recorders were found.^[14]