Antonov An-24

The An-24 has one of the weaker records of any aircraft still carrying passengers. Up to 7 October 2026 it has had 95 fatal events, 66 of which count as passenger accidents in about 27.5 million passenger flights. Most of those crashes are from the Soviet era, but the type still crashes today: an Angara Airlines An-24 killed all 48 people on board near Tynda in July 2025. If you have a choice on a Siberian route, take the newer aircraft.

What the An-24 is

The An-24 is a high-wing, twin turboprop airliner built by Antonov in Kyiv. It first flew in 1959 and entered service in 1962, and about 1,360 were built in versions including the An-24B, An-24RV and An-24T. With about 48 seats and a tough landing gear, it was designed for the short, unpaved and icy runways of the Soviet regions, and for decades it was Aeroflot's standard regional airliner.

About 60 remain in service, almost all in Russia, with regional airlines such as Angara Airlines in Siberia and the Far East. Most are more than 45 years old, with service lives extended again and again. Russia's planned replacements have been slow to arrive, and Western sanctions since 2022 have made it harder to buy foreign aircraft.

The fatal record

Of the 66 counted accidents, 49 happened before 1992, 31 of them with Aeroflot. The pattern then was approaches below minimums in bad weather, icing and flights into terrain, often at poorly equipped airports. One 1973 Aeroflot crash is counted although its cause was never established; a missile strike was suspected.

After 1991 the type spread to small operators in Africa and Asia, and crashes followed:

• 13 December 1995, Banat Air 166, Verona: the captain decided not to de-ice in falling snow, and the aircraft lost control after take-off. All 49 died.
• 15 November 2000, ASA Pesada, Luanda: crashed after take-off, reportedly after an engine failure. All 57 died.
• 16 July 2005, Equatorial Express: hit trees after take-off from Malabo. All 60 died; the aircraft had reportedly missed a scheduled maintenance check.
• 17 May 2010, Pamir Airways 1102: flew into a mountain at the Salang Pass in Afghanistan in fog. All 44 died.

In Russia, the An-24 is still crashing. Katekavia lost one at Igarka in 2010 (12 dead), Angara Airlines ditched one in the Ob river after an engine fire in 2011 (7 dead), and another Angara An-24 ran off the runway at Nizhneangarsk with an engine out in 2019 (2 dead). Then came Tynda in 2025, a flight into terrain caused by an altimeter setting error, with the terrain alert silenced.

The other 29 fatal events are excluded from the count: military, training, cargo and ferry flights, and nine acts of unlawful interference, including the 1998 shoot-down of a Lionair An-24 off Sri Lanka. Our methodology explains why.

The aircraft or the operating environment?

Both. The airframe is rugged, and most crashes come down to crews, weather, airports and maintenance rather than a single design flaw. But the An-24 is a 1950s design with an analogue cockpit and old engines, flown in some of the harshest conditions anywhere, and it lacks the automation and alerting that newer turboprops carry. The ATR 72 and the Dash 8 fly similar short routes elsewhere with better records.

How to tell if you are on one

Flight trackers show the ICAO code AN24. From outside, look for the high wing over the cabin and the long engine nacelles into which the main landing gear folds. On routes where an alternative exists, such as a newer turboprop or a regional jet a day later, it is worth taking.