Qualla: 2018 South West Aviation Let L-410 crash

2018 South West Aviation Let L-410 crash: Introduction

Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Aleksandr Markin, CC BY-SA 2.0. When investigators recovered the Flight Data Recorder and the Cockpit Voice Recorder from the wreckage of the Let L-410 that crashed into Lake Yirol on 9 September 2018, they found something unforgivable. The tapes had run out. They had not been replaced. Twenty-three people were on that aircraft - men, women, and at least one of them a bishop - and when the recorders were opened, there was nothing on them. The silence of those spools says more about the aircraft's last flight than any recording could have.

Image: Aleksandr Markin | CC BY-SA 2.0

2018 South West Aviation Let L-410 crash: Juba to Yirol

Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Aleksandr Markin, CC BY-SA 2.0. The Let L-410 Turbolet, a small Czech-built twin turboprop registered UR-TWO, took off from Juba International Airport in South Sudan at eight in the morning local time. Its destination was Yirol Airport, about 122 nautical miles north - a short hop of roughly forty-five minutes....

Image: Aleksandr Markin | CC BY-SA 2.0

2018 South West Aviation Let L-410 crash: A Fleet With a Past

Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Aleksandr Markin, CC BY-SA 2.0. The aircraft had a history longer than either pilot's career. Delivered to the Soviet airline Aeroflot in 1984, it passed through various operators over the decades until 2006, when it was parked in storage at Rivne, in western Ukraine, for twelve years. In April 2018, a Ukrainia...

Image: Aleksandr Markin | CC BY-SA 2.0

2018 South West Aviation Let L-410 crash: The Decision Not Made

Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Aleksandr Markin, CC BY-SA 2.0. Heavy fog enveloped the approach to Lake Yirol. The airline had not obtained weather briefings to give to its crew. The crew, watching conditions deteriorate, should have diverted to an alternate airfield. Instead, they pressed on toward Yirol. The on-board altimeter, recovered l...

Image: Aleksandr Markin | CC BY-SA 2.0

2018 South West Aviation Let L-410 crash: Bishop Yuang

Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Aleksandr Markin, CC BY-SA 2.0. Bishop Simon Adut Yuang was on his way back to his diocese. His death was marked by the Anglican Communion News Service and by mourners across Yirol, where he had led the Episcopal Church of South Sudan in a town ravaged by conflict. Twenty-two others died with him - ordinary pas...

Image: Aleksandr Markin | CC BY-SA 2.0

2018 South West Aviation Let L-410 crash: Lake Yirol

Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Aleksandr Markin, CC BY-SA 2.0. Lake Yirol sits in Eastern Lakes State, a shallow body of water in the flat savanna that characterises much of central South Sudan. The town of Yirol lies on its western shore - a cattle-keeping community where Dinka pastoralists bring their herds to water in the dry months. The ...

Image: Aleksandr Markin | CC BY-SA 2.0