Massive Russian An-124 Condor Slides Off The Runway After Engine Failure

It is not every day that you get to see a plane suffer an engine failure and still manage to land safely, but when you do it is a must-see. In this story, first covered by The Drive, a gigantic Antonov An-124 Condor airplane operated by Russia’s specialist Volga-Dnepr Airlines made an emergency landing at Novosibirsk in Siberia.

RELATED: PLANESPOTTING THE ANTONOV AN-124 AT LONDON STANSTED AIRPORT

Volga-Dnepr An-124 overruns runway following emergency landing at Novosibirsk Airport, Russia. No injuries reported. https://t.co/0m9Pn5zW28 pic.twitter.com/JvDNp8x7N7

— Breaking Aviation News & Videos (@breakingavnews) November 13, 2020

The cause of the emergency landing was an engine failure after take-off. While the aircraft skidded off the end of Novosibirsk's runway, several pieces of engine debris fell off making their way into populated areas. Luckily, no injuries were reported.

The plane was heading for Vienna, Austria with no cargo on board and just 14 crew members. There are several videos of the incident that show the An-124 touching down on runway 25 approximately two minutes after takeoff.

According to reports, it was the aircraft’s number two engine that suffered the malfunction: An uncontained engine event. In this case, fragments of rotating turbine parts penetrated one side of the plane's fuselage before passing through to the other. 

To make matters worse, the An-124 also experienced a loss of communications seeing its radios and transponder refusing to function while the plane was at approximately 18,000 feet (5,486 meters) and still rising to its cruising altitude. Despite all these issues, the plane was safely recovered.

Previous accidents

This is especially impressive if you consider that four previous An-124s have been lost to accidents. The most recent incident took place in December 1997.

The plane was from the Russian Air Force by Cargotrans and was transporting two Su-27UB Flanker jet fighters to Vietnam. Just like this An-124, the craft crashed after take-off at Irkutsk in Russia’s far east. Unfortunately, in this case, an accident could not be averted and the plane hit a building killing a total of 68 people.