"Level out, hold the yoke!" - A Wild Cadet Landing

This is a story of an accident that was captured on an amateur video which, at the time, spread widely across the internet. The footage shows a Let L-410 training and transport aircraft making a failed landing at the Rtishchevo airfield.

The Let L-410 Turbolet is a Czech twin-engine turboprop aircraft designed to carry up to 19 passengers or an equivalent cargo load. Reliable and capable of operating from short runways, it was widely used in the USSR and Russia both for regional flights and for pilot training.

Rtishchevo Airfield, located in the Saratov region, served as a training base where aviation cadets learned to fly the L-410. Students practiced takeoffs and landings there, including in challenging weather and runway conditions.

There is no official accident report available in open sources. However, based on information gathered from online discussions and aviation forums, the following details emerged.

The accident occurred on August 24, 2006. At the controls were cadets performing their second solo flight of the day. Upon touchdown, the aircraft began to “bounce”- repeatedly skipping off the runway and hitting it again with increasing force. The crew did not initiate a go-around, and the aircraft continued to attempt landing until it came to a stop.

“Bouncing” is a series of runway impacts after the initial touchdown. It usually results from excessive approach speed, incorrect flare technique, or poor crew coordination. Each subsequent impact typically occurs with greater vertical speed, increasing structural loads and potentially causing landing gear failure, fuselage damage, and loss of control. In such cases, a go-around after the first hard bounce is the standard and safest response.

The video is accompanied by the voice of an instructor or flight supervisor giving commands:

- Reduce power.
- Level out. Level out.
- Hold the yoke.
- Ease it in gently.
- Hold the yoke. Hold the yoke. Hold the yoke, 65!
- Shut down engine 65!

The consequences were serious: the fuselage and landing gear sustained significant damage. The runway itself was also damaged - visible marks remained on the surface at the points of impact.

According to posts on aviation forums, unauthorized video recording was taking place in the cockpit. Some participants claimed that the recording tape was destroyed after the flight.

A quote allegedly taken from an internal investigation report, published on one of the forums, stated that the cause of the accident was the commander’s lack of discipline. He failed to manage the second pilot’s actions and did not prohibit in-cockpit filming. As of 2009, the damaged aircraft had not returned to service.

A go-around is not a “mistake” but a standard and safest action when a landing becomes unstable. After the first major bounce, the landing parameters already exceed acceptable limits: speed and energy are too high, pitch is unstable, and the next contact with the runway is almost always harder than the last.

Trying to “force the plane down” only increases vertical speed and the load on the landing gear and fuselage. Failure to initiate a go-around is a human factor - a desire to complete what was started, to land no matter what. But physics doesn’t care about human intentions.